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NAN HUNG BACK IN AWKWARD SILENCE 
(Page 61.) 






MISS WILDFIRE 


H 5ton> for (BIrls 



JULIE M. LIPPMANN 

Author of “Jock o’ Dreams,” Etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY IDA WAUGH 



THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA MDCCCXCVII 


Copyright, 1897, by The Penn Publishing Company 



TO 

LULU AND MARIE 






































CONTENTS 


CHAP. PAGE 

I Nan 7 

II Nan’s Visitor 22 

III Mr. Turner’s Plan 39 

IV The Governess 58 

V Getting Acquainted 74 

VI Wheels within Wheels 96 

VII Open Confession 113 

VIII Nan’s Heroine 128 

IX Having Her Own Way 142 

X Experiences 159 

XI Christmas 176 

XII Small Clouds 196 

XIII On the Ice 209 

XIV Changes 229 

XV A Tug of War 249 

5 


6 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. PAGE 

XVI The Sleigh-Ride ... - 268 

XVII Consequences 288 

XVIII “Chester Newcomb” 308 

XIX In Miss Blake’s Room 331 

XX Through Deep Waters 347 

XXI Another Christmas 361 


i 


MISS WILDFIRE 


CHAPTER I 

NAN 


“ Hello, Nan !” 

“ Heyo, Ruthie !” 

“ Where are you going ?” 

“ Over to Reid’s lot.” 

“ Take me ?” 

“No, Ruthie, can’t.” 

The little child’s lip began to tremble. “ I 
think you’re real mean, Nan Cutler,” she com- 
plained. 

Nan shook her head. “ Can’t help it if you 
do,” she returned, stoutly, and took a step on. 

“ Nannie,” cried the child eagerly, starting 
after her and clutching her by the skirt, “I 
didn’t mean that! Truly, I didn’t. I think 
you’re just as nice as you can be. Do please let 
me go with you. Won’t you ?” 

Nan compressed her lips. “ Now, Ruth, look 

7 


8 


MISS WILDFIRE 


here,” she said after a moment, in which she 
stood considering, “ I’d take you in a minute if 
I could but the truth is — oh, you’re too little.” 

“ I ain’t too little !” 

“ Well, then, your mother doesn’t like you to 
be with me, so there !” cried Nan, in a burst of 
reckless frankness. 

Ruth hung her head. She could not deny it 
but at sight of her companion turning to leave 
her she again started forward, piping shrilly, 
“ Nannie ! Nannie ! She won’t care this time. 
Honest, she won’t.” 

Nan stalked on without turning her head. 
The hurrying little feet followed on close behind. 

“ Nannie ! Nannie !” 

“ See here, Ruth,” exclaimed the girl, veering 
suddenly about and speaking with decision. 
“ You can’t come, and that’s all there is about 
it. Your mother doesn’t like me, and you ought 
not to disobey her. Now run back home like a 
good little girl.” 

The delicate, small face upturned to hers 
grew hardened and set, but the child did not 
move. 

Nan gave her a friendly shove on the shoulder 
and turned on her way again. Immediately she 


NAN 


9 


heard the tap of hurrying little feet behind, like 
the echoing sound of her own hasty footsteps. 
She stopped and swung about abruptly. 

“ Are you going to be a good little girl and 
go back this minute ?” she demanded sternly, 
calling to her assistance all the dignity of her 
fourteen years, and turning on the poor infant 
a severe, unrelenting eye. 

The child gazed up at her reproachfully, but 
did not reply. 

Nan felt herself fast losing patience. “ Of all 
the provoking little witches !” she exclaimed, in 
an underbreath of irritation. 

Ruth’s rebuking eyes surveyed her calmly, 
but she made no response. 

“Now be good and trot along back,” cajoled 
Nan, changing her tactics and stroking the 
child’s soft hair caressingly. 

There was a visible pursing of the obstinate 
little lips, but no further sign of acknowledg- 
ment. 

Nan dropped her voice to a tone of honey- 
sweetness. “ See here, Rutliie, if you’ll go home 
this minute I’ll give you five cents. You can 
buy anything you like with it at Sam’s, on the 
way back.” She plunged her hand into her 


10 


MISS WILDFIRE 


pocket and drew forth a bright new nickel, and 
held it alluringly aloft. 

The azure eyes gazed at it appreciatively, but 
the hand was not outstretched to receive it. 
For a second Nan reviewed the situation in 
silence. Then she flung about with a move- 
ment of exasperation, and marched on stolidly, 
and the smaller feet hastened after her, keep- 
ing pace with difficulty, and often breaking into 
a little run that they might not be outstripped. 

A chill autumn wind was sweeping up 
heavily from the northeast, and the air was cold 
and raw. Nan shuddered as she walked, and 
wished Ruth were safe and sound in her own 
warm home, which she never should have been 
permitted to leave this blustering day. A score 
of plans for ridding herself of her troublesome 
little follower crowded Nan’s brain. She might 
run and leave the youngster behind. But then 
Ruth would cry, and Nan could not bear to in- 
flict pain on a little child. She might take her 
up in her arms and carry her bodily back to 
her own door. Well, and what then ? Why, 
simply, she would get the credit of abusing the 
little girl. There seemed no way out of it. 
She stalked on grimly, and when she came to 


NAN 


11 


Reid’s lot she promptly and dexterously climbed 
its fence and continued her way in silence. 
But the fence proved an insurmountable ob- 
stacle to Ruth. She stood outside and wailed 
dismally. The sound smote Nan, and made her 
turn around. 

“ Ruth Newton, you deserve to be spanked !” 
she announced, severely. 

The child uttered another wail of entreaty. 
Nan sprang up to the cross-bar of the palings, 
gathered her skirts about her knees, and leaped 
down. 

“ Here, let me boost you, since you will get 
over,” she said sharply. 

After they were both safely on the other 
side Ruth’s spirit rose, and she capered about in 
the freedom of the open space as wildly as a 
young colt. Nan had come for chestnuts. She 
announced the same presently to Ruth. Ruth 
shouted gleefully. 

“ I’m going to climb the tree. You can 
stand underneath and pick up what I shake, 
only mind you don’t get the burr-prickles in 
your fingers, for they hurt like sixty,” warned 
Nan. 

The child nodded her head and pranced over 


12 


MISS WILDFIRE 


the brown, stubbly ground with dancing feet, 
her cheeks aglow and her eyes flashing with 
satisfaction. 

She watched Nan with the liveliest interest, 
and when the older girl was once comfortably 
ensconced in the lofty branches, she executed a 
sort of war-dance underneath, and spread her 
tiny skirt to catch the rain of nuts that Nan 
shook down upon her from above. But pres- 
ently this began to pall. 

“ I want to come up where you are, Nannie, ,, 
she called, coaxingly. 

“ You’ll have to want then/’ retorted Nan, 
carelessly munching nuts like a squirrel. 

“ I could climb’s good as anything if only I 
had a boost,” drawled the child ruefully. 

Nan sprinkled a handful of shucks on her 
head. 

“ I’m going to try,” ventured Buth. 

Nan laughed. 

Buth looked around, trying to discover some 
means by which she might accomplish her pur- 
pose. Nan felt so sure that the child could not 
do what she threatened that she made no effort 
to dissuade her. She, herself, passed from bough 
to bough as nimbly as a boy, in spite of her 


NAN 


13 


skirts, and in a very short time was almost out 
of sight among the upper spreading branches. 
She sat astride one of these, swinging to and 
fro and luxuriating in her sense of freedom 
and adventure. Peering clown occasionally she 
saw Ruth standing beneath her and sent re- 
peated showers of nuts spinning through the 
boughs to keep the child busy. But presently 
Ruth disappeared. She had spied an old piece 
of board and she immediately flew to get it, her 
silly little head filled with the idea of making it 
serve her as a ladder. She tugged it laboriously 
across the stubbly field, and her short, panting 
breaths did not reach Nan’s ear, full of the near 
rustle of leaves and the hum of the scudding 
wind. 

“ Ahoy ! below there !” she shouted nautically 
from above. 

Ruth was too busy to respond. The board 
was heavy, and it took all the strength of her 
slight arms to get it in position. 

“ Shipmate ahoy !” repeated Nan. 

By this time the board had been tilted against 
the tree and Ruth was scrambling up the un- 
steady inclined plane, too absorbed and scared 
in her adventure to reply. She actually man- 


14 


MISS WILDFIRE 


aged to reach the top and to stand there tip- 
toeing the edge uncertainly, her small fingers 
clasping the tree-trunk convulsively and her 
arms trying to grapple with it for a surer hold. 
But suddenly she gave a piercing scream, and 
Nan, peering down through the branches in 
instant alarm, saw Buth lying at the foot of the 
tree in a pitiful little motionless heap, and knew 
in a moment that she had tried to do what she 
had threatened and had failed. 

It did not take Nan a minute to reach the 
ground. Her heart seemed to stand still with 
fear. She flung herself from bough to bough 
with reckless haste and dropped to the ground 
all in one breathless instant. 

“ Ruth,” she cried, bending over the little 
prostrate figure in an agony. “ Ruth, open 
your eyes ! Get up ! Oh, please get up !” 

There was no answer. Nan wrung her hands 
in despair. The cold wind blew over the field 
in chilling gusts. It made her shudder, and in- 
stinctively she took a step toward her warm coat, 
which she had stripped off and cast aside before 
climbing the tree. At sight of it a new thought 
struck her. Ruth lying there on the frosty 
ground would surely take cold — perhaps die 


NAN 


15 


from it ! In a twinkling the soft, woolly gar- 
ment was wrapped securely about the child and 
Nan had her two stout arms around her and 
was half dragging, half carrying her in the 
direction of the distant fence. But they had 
not covered a dozen yards before she felt her 
strength begin to fail. * She was lifting a dead 
weight, and it seem to drag more heavily upon 
her every moment. Her arms pulled in their 
sockets and her breath came in painful gasps, 
and she knew that if she tried to keep on as she 
was it would be at the cost of increasing misery. 
Still she did not give up, and at last, after what 
seemed to her hours of agony and suspense, she 
actually reached the limit of the field. She 
laid Buth gently upon the ground and straight- 
ened herself up to ease her aching back and re- 
gain her lost breath before taking up her bur- 
den again. But as she lifted her head her eyes 
fell on the high pickets before her, which seemed 
to confront her with as grim defiance as if they 
had been bayonets. How could she get Ruth 
over ? The gate, which was at another end of 
the lot, was always kept padlocked, and even if 
she had remembered this at first and had carried 
the child there, she could not have undone the 


16 


MISS WILDFIRE 


bolt. This was the last straw ! She felt frus- 
trated and defeated, and a low sob of complete 
discouragement broke from her. It was useless 
to dream of getting Ruth over alone. The only 
way that remained was to secure help, that was 
plain. She looked about wildly, but not a soul 
was in sight, and she knew in her heart that the 
chances were against her. The street at this 
point was near the city limits, and it had not 
been built up as yet. There would be nothing 
to call any one here unless it might be some boy 
who, like herself, had come out for chestnuts, 
and what use would a mere boy be ? If only 
John Gardiner were here ! John was tall and 
strong, and would lend a hand in a jiffy. But 
John also was miles away. Ruth’s eyes opened 
for a second and then closed sleepily again. 
Nan’s heart leaped up with new hope. 

“ Ruth ! Ruth !” she called eagerly bending 
over her and stroking her cheek tenderly. But 
her hope was short-lived. The eyelids remained 
shut, and the child only breathed deeper than 
before. Nan’s own heart seemed to stop in her 
anxiety for Ruth. Suddenly she sprang to her 
feet. Surely she had heard the rattle of wheels ! 
Ever so far and indistinct to be sure, but still 


NAN 


17 


unmistakably wneels, clattering over some dis- 
tant cobbles. She raised her voice and shouted ; 
then held her breath to listen. The clatter grew 
more distinct ; it drew nearer and nearer. She 
clambered up the fence and stood there waving 
her arms and shouting as madly as if she had 
been a shipwrecked mariner sighting a sail. She 
j^aused a moment to listen. The rattling wheels 
came nearer. She shouted again and then 
waited, listening intently. The rattling stopped. 
She set up a wild howl of dismay and kept it 
up till her ears seemed on the point of splitting. 
But now the clatter of wheels had begun again 
and she could see a milk cart rounding the cor- 
ner of the street. She gave a long, shrill whistle 
and leaped down and ran frantically out into 
the road, straight for the horse’s head. 

It was a second or two before the astonished 
driver could be made to understand, but when 
he did, he bounded out of his cart willingly 
enough, vaulted over the fence and then bade 
Nan “ stand hard ” while he lifted Buth into 
her arms. Her weight was nothing to the 
brawny fellow, and he had her safely stowed 
away on the seat of his cart, with Nan crouch- 
ing on the floor beside her and himself clinging 
2 


18 


MISS WILDFIRE 


to the step outside, in less time than it takes to 
tell it. 

Nan gave him the street and number in a 
trembling gasp of gratitude. He eyed her nar- 
rowly, and then seemed to sum up his conclusion 
in a low, keen whistle. Her hat was hanging 
by its elastic on her shoulders ; her hair was 
blown out of all order by the wind ; her dress 
was torn and her hands were bruised and none 
too clean. She had no coat on, and her cheeks 
were flaming with cold and excitement. She 
was an astonishing spectacle. 

“ Guess you’re a sort of high-flyer, ain’t you ?” 
said he at last without a sign of ill-nature. 

Nan set her jaws and did not reply. 

“ Oh, well, I don’t want to hurt your feelings. 
Only you look sorter wild-like, you know, and 
as if your mother didn’t know you was out.” 

Nan’s teeth snapped. “I haven’t got any 
mother,” she returned curtly. “ She’s dead.” 

The milkman looked uncomfortable. He 
shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other 
and muttered something about being sorry. 
Then for some time there was silence. 

“ That’s the house,” announced Nan at length, 
jumping to the step and hanging to the rail 


NAN 


19 


above the dashboard. “ That third one from 
the corner, on this side. Please let me out first. 
I want to run ahead and tell.” 

Almost before he could rein in his horse she 
was out on the pavement. She flew to the area 
gate and pressed the bell with all her might. 
She kept her finger on it, and the cook came fly- 
ing to the door, looking flushed and angry at the 
continuous ringing. 

“Well, I might o’ known,” she said, eying 
Nan with unconcealed disfavor. “ Do you think 
a body’s deaf that you ring like that ?” 

Nan flung back her head resentfully. 

“ Never mind what I think,” she returned 
sharply. “ Open the gate ! Ruth is sick ! She 
got hurt ! Some one’s bringing her in. Quick !” 

The gate was flung open with a bang, and the 
woman rushed out, clutching Ruth from the 
milkman’s arms and carrying her into the 
house, muttering mingled caresses and abuse 
all the while : the caresses for Ruth and the 
abuse for Nan. 

The milkman turned on his heel and went 
his way unthanked, but by the time he got to 
the outer gate Nan had recollected herself, and 
had rushed after him, calling : 


20 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Oh, please ! I want to tell you — thank you 
ever so much !” 

She was glad she had done it when she saw 
the gratified look on his face. When she got 
back to the area gate it was shut. Mary the 
chambermaid stood just inside it. She made no 
attempt to admit Nan. She simply stood there 
and looked her over from head to toe. 

“ Well, you’re a pretty piece !” she remarked. 

“ None of your business if I am,” retorted 
Nan. “ Let me in. I want to see Mrs. 
Newton.” 

The maid took her hand from the knob and 
put it on her hip. 

“ Mrs. Newton don’t want to see you, though, 
I guess,” she returned. “ By this time Bridget’s 
told her all she wants to know.” 

“ But I must see her ! I must tell her !” Nan 
insisted, stamping her foot. “ Bridget don’t 
know anything about it. No one does but me. 
Let me in, I say !” 

The girl laughed. 

“ Well, I’ll go upstairs and tell Mrs. Newton. 
Then, if she wants to see you, she can,” and she 
went inside and closed the door, leaving Nan to 
stand shuddering in the cold outside. Pres- 


NAN 


21 


ently she came back, carrying the coat in her 
hands. 

“ Mrs. Newton says she hasn’t time to see you 
now. She says she’ll attend to you later. She 
says she can guess how it happened, and that if 
Ruth dies it’ll be your fault. There, now, you 
know what’s thought of you, and you can put it 
in your pipe and smoke it, you great, rough 
tomboy !” 

The gate was thrust open a little way, the 
coat was flung out, and the door slammed to 
again, and once more Nan found herself in the 
area way alone. Burning tears of fury sprung 
to her eyes. She caught up her despised coat 
and dashed wildly out of the gate in a perfect 
tempest of anger and resentment. 


CHAPTEB II 


nan’s visitor 

She knew what was coming when the bell 
rang. She had been expecting it all the after- 
noon. But in spite of that her heart beat fast 
and her breath came hard as she heard the 
familiar sound. Not that she was afraid. She 
had nothing to be afraid of, she assured her- 
self defiantly, and besides, fear was one of the 
things she despised. Whatever else she was, 
she was certainly not a coward. Still she sat in 
her room and waited in a state of mind that 
was not precisely what one would call tranquil. 

She heard Delia mount the basement stairs 
and then she heard her ask the new-comer into 
the parlor. A moment later there was a tap 
upon Nan’s bedroom door. 

“Come in,” she said carelessly, and pretended 
to be searching for some article lost in the con- 
fusion of her upper drawer. 

“You’re wanted in the parlor, Nan,” began 
Delia at once. “ It’s a lady who says she lives 
22 


NANS VISITOR 


23 


on the block and slie wouldn’t give her name, 
but I think she’s the one moved into Leffing- 
well’s old house last spring — has that little girl 
with the long curls, you know the one I mean. 
Shall I help you put on another dress and braid 
your hair over ? It’s fearful mussy-lookin’. Or 
will I just go and say you’ll be down in a min- 
ute while you do it yourself?” 

Nan cast a glance at her torn dress and tow- 
zled head in the mirror. “ No, Delia, I’ll go as 
I am, and if the lady doesn’t like it she can — 
oh, well, I’ll go down as I am.” 

Delia pressed her lips together, as though 
trying to hold back the words of advice on the 
tip of her tongue. She knew it was worse than 
useless to try to argue with the girl. She had 
not lived in the house since Nan was born with- 
out learning better than to try to reason with 
her when she had once declared her mind. She 
stood beside the door, and allowed Nan to pass 
through it before her, without saying a word. 
Then she followed her quietly down stairs. At 
the parlor door Nan paused a moment, and 
Delia, who thought she was about to speak, 
paused too, but the girl only turned sharply 
into the room, pulling the door shut behind her. 


24 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Once across the threshold she halted and stood 
irresolute. Whatever the result of this meeting 
might prove, depended not so much on Nan as 
on her visitor. 

Nan, though standing in awkward silence, as 
stiff and as straight as a soldier on parade, was 
ready to be influenced by whatever course her 
caller chose to pursue ; a kind word spoken at 
the start would melt her at once, where a harsh 
one would raise in her every sort of sullen hos- 
tility and obstinate resistance. She was, as 
Delia often said to herself, “ as hard to manage 
as a kicking colt.” Sometimes she was wonder- 
fully docile, but her moods were variable, and 
oftenest she was headstrong and wilful, with a 
fierce repugnance to curb, or what she con- 
sidered unwarrantable interference. 

But it would have been difficult to convince 
the stranger at that moment that Nan could 
ever be won, or, in fact, that she had any ten- 
derness to be appealed to. There she stood, 
looking as erect and impassive as a young 
Indian. Her brown hair was in a state of 
thorough disorder, and gave a sort of savage 
look to her sun-browned face. Her gray eyes 
were anything but soft at this moment ; her 


nan’s visitor 


25 


mouth was set, and her whole attitude seemed 
to be one of imperturbable indifference. In 
reality, the girl was apprehensive and embar- 
rassed. She set her lips to keep them from 
trembling. Her first impulse would have been 
to make a clean breast of everything, frankly 
and truthfully, but — something in her nature 
held her back. Was it obstinacy, or was it 
reticence ? 

Her visitor did not wait to discover. She de- 
cided the result of the interview in the first 
words she spoke. 

“ Is your name Nan Cutler ?” she asked in a 
voice of stern authority. 

“ Yes, it is !” acknowledged the girl, instantly 
on the defensive. 

“ Then it is you who are accountable for the 
accident to Ruth Newton ? You urged her to 
go with you, and when she fell— oh, you are a 
coward ! It was detestable !” 

Nan made no reply, but stood the picture of 
inflexibility, facing her accuser squarely. 

“ I have come to see you, not because you can 
undo the mischief you have done to my child, 
and not because I think I can affect you in the 
least, or make you sorry or ashamed, but simply 


26 


MISS WILDFIRE 


to tell you that I intend to see that you are pun- 
shed, as you deserve. I have put up with an- 
noyance you caused me long enough. Your 
influence is bad. All the neighbors complain 
of you. You are noisy and careless, and rough 
and rude. When any one reprimands you, you 
give a pert retort, or else pretend not to hear — 
which is impudent. Unless we wish our chil- 
dren to he utterly ruined we must see that they 
are put beyond your influence at once. You do 
things that are absolutely vulgar and unbefit- 
ting a girl of your age ; you must be fourteen, 
at least, you look older, you are certainly old 
enough to know better. You are not a proper 
playmate for our children. You are boisterous 
and unladylike. You — you — are a perfect 
hoyden !” 

The stranger paused for breath, while Nan 
surveyed her with a look of calm indifference ; 
an air of unconcern in anything she might say 
or think that seemed as insolent as it was ex- 
asperating. 

“ You are a perfect hoyden !” repeated the 
stern voice in rising anger. “ Whatever you do 
is done in such a loud, violent fashion that it 
becomes perfectly unbearable. You play ball 


nan’s visitor 


27 


with boys. You climb fences and trees. You 
are continually flying up and down the street 
on your detestable roller-skates and shouting 
until the neighborhood seems like Bedlam, and 
you don’t appear to have the vaguest idea that 
people’s rights need not be infringed on in such 
a manner ; that they have the right to peace 
and quiet in their own homes. Even if you 
would content yourself with your own disorder- 
liness ! But you are not satisfied with doing 
what you know must annoy others ; you seem 
to take a malicious delight in bringing the little 
children under your influence and making them 
long to follow your example. You cannot have 
the first shadow of generosity or bravery in 
your nature, or you would not urge them to do 
what you know their parents would disapprove 
of. You teach them to disobey. My daughter 
never told an untruth in her life until the other 
day. I have no reason to doubt that you taught 
her to tell that untruth !” 

Nan’s cheeks suddenly became white, but she 
did not open her lips. 

“ If you cannot be restrained by your 
own people at home you shall be by some 
other means. They say your own people 


28 


MISS WILDFIRE 


are respectable ; how can you disgrace them 
so?” 

Nan deigned no reply, but her lip curled 
contemptuously. 

“ They say your mother is dead.” 

Again no answer. 

“ Where is your father ?” 

“ My father is in India. He is in Bombay,” 
announced Nan, deliberately. 

“ Who has control of you in his absence ?” 

“ No one !” declared the girl with decision. 

Mrs. Newton surveyed the lank, overgrown, 
girlish figure with unconcealed scorn. 

“ Do you know,” she said with bitter distinct- 
ness, “ that you are the most shameless, unfeel- 
ing girl I have ever beheld ? Any one else would 
show some remorse for what she had done, but 
you — young as you are, you are the hardest 
creature I have ever known. Hard, cruel, and 
cold. How can you stand there and look me in 
the face when you know how you have injured 
me ? Tell me, does it not touch you at all that 
Ruth is hurt? Do you know or care that such 
a fall as she has had is enough to cripple a child 
for life ? Many children have been hopelessly 
crippled through far less.” 


nan’s visitor 


29 


The mother’s voice broke, and she set her lips 
to keep down a sob. 

“How much is she hurt?” whispered Nan 
after a moment. She was trembling all over 
and cold and hot by turns, and she could not 
command her voice. It was almost more than 
she could do to keep from bursting into a violent 
fit of sobbing from her sense of injury and 
shame and indignation. But she simply would 
not permit herself to break down. No one 
should be allowed to think they intimidated her. 
But she could not hide her anxiety about 
Ruth. 

“ Is she much hurt ?” she repeated. 

There was a shade of softening in her visitor’s 
face. “We can’t tell yet. She has had a severe 
fall, and the chill coming after it may have very 
serious consequences, but we can tell nothing 
yet. However, I did not come here to inform 
you of her condition,” the voice growing stern 
and the face severe again. “ I came to tell you 
that if Ruth is injured I will hold you respon- 
sible. And not only that, but I warn you that 
I mean to take matters into my own hands now 
and see that you are permitted to do no further 
mischief. You shall be controlled. Who has 


30 


MISS WILDFIRE 


charge of your father’s affairs ? Who has any 
sort of authority over you in his absence ? He 
must have left you in somebody’s care. He 
can’t have gone away leaving you with no one 
to look after you. Who is your guardian ? 
Tell me ? If you don’t I shall find out for my- 
self, you may depend.” 

“ I’m perfectly willing to tell you,” declared 
Nan, with what seemed to be complete coolness. 
“ It’s Mr. Turner. He gives Delia the money 
to get me things and to keep the house. He 
comes here every once in a while to see me. My 
father has him for his lawyer. He’s a friend 
of his. When Delia writes to him for money 
for me she sends the letter to 101 Blank Street. 
That’s his office. I don’t remember where his 
house is. Delia never writes to his house. He 
doesn’t attend to me — that is, he isn’t my 
guardian, but I guess he would do if you want 
to see some one.” 

Nan delivered herself of this information as 
casually as though it had been a report of the 
weather. As a matter of fact she was inwardly 
quivering, and every moment found it more and 
more difficult to control herself. Never in all her 
life before had she been so relentlessly, harshly 


nan’s visitor 


31 


accused. In trying to conceal her emotion she 
only gave herself the appearance of rigid in- 
flexibility. 

Her visitor regarded her stonily for a moment 
and then abruptly brushed past her toward the 
door. Nan made no attempt to intercept her, 
but suddenly the hard lines about her mouth 
relaxed, her eyes softened, and she held out her 
hands with an imploring gesture. 

“ Won’t you please tell me where Ruth is 
hurt?” she cried. “ Won’t you let me do some- 
thing for her ? Let me — please let me ! If 
you’ll only listen a minute I’ll tell you — ” 

But it was too late now. She was given no 
reply ; permitted no chance to vindicate herself. 
Her visitor’s hard lips quivered, but she uttered 
no syllable. In a moment she was gone. 

After the door had closed upon her and it was 
quite certain that she would not come back, Nan 
turned and rushed headlong, like a young sav- 
age, upstairs and into her own room. What 
took place there it would have been impossible 
to discover, for the shades were jerked fiercely 
down, the door sharply shut and locked, and 
Delia, coming up some time later, could not 
make out a sound within nor get a reply to her 


32 


MISS WILDFIRE 


requests to be admitted, though she stood out- 
side and pleaded for an hour. 

At twilight the door was opened and Nan came 
out quite composed, but bearing on her face 
the unmistakable traces of tears which, how- 
ever, Delia was wise enough to let pass unre- 
marked. 

“Time for dinner?” asked the girl, curtly. 

“ No, not yet. It ain’t but just six,” replied 
the woman. “ Are you hungry ? I’ll get you 
something if you are.” 

“ No, I’m not hungry. But I feel kind of 
queer, somehow. There’s an empty feeling I 
have that makes me uncomfortable. But I’m 
not hungry. O Delia !” she burst out, vehe- 
mently, “ I wish — I wish — I had my mother. 
A girl needs — her mother — sometimes — ” . 

“ Always,” declared Delia, with conviction. 

For a little time there was silence between 
them. Then Nan said, “ Look here, Delia — I 
want to tell you something. I feel just horribly. 
I never felt so unhappy in all my life. That 
lady who was here this afternoon is Buth New- 
ton’s mother. She came to see me because this 
morning Buth fell from the tree in Beid’s lot 
and hurt herself, and Mrs. Newton thinks I 


nan’s visitor 


33 


made her do it. I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t. 
I had climbed the tree myself, and it was fun and 
I liked it. Ruth would come. I tried to make 
her stay away, but she wouldn’t, and when she 
teased to climb the tree too, I told her not to. 
She’s so little and young, and her mother doesn’t 
think it’s ladylike, and I said if she wouldn’t 
come with me in the first place I’d give her five 
cents. But she would tag on, and later she tried 
to climb the tree in spite of everything. She 
put a board up against the trunk and got on it 
and then scrambled up a little way, but she 
didn’t get far, for the board slipped, or some- 
thing, and down she went — smash ! I guess 
she must have hit herself on the edge or some- 
where, for when I dropped down she was lying 
on the ground, and she had her eyes closed and 
wouldn’t speak. Then I didn’t know what to 
do. I wanted to lift her, but it was awful work. 
There was no one in sight. At last I managed 
to tug her to the fence, but, of course, I hadn’t 
the strength to get her over that alone. I 
couldn’t leave her and run for help, and for a 
long time I did nothing but scream, in the hope 
that some one would come along and hear. And 
by and by I heard wheels. It was a milk cart, 
3 


34 


MISS WILDFIRE 


and I got tlie man to help me get her home. I 
went right to the Newton’s as fast as I could, 
but when Bridget opened the door and saw who 
it was she was simply furious. They wouldn’t 
let me in, and Mrs. Newton sent down word 
she wouldn’t see me, but she’d attend to me 
later, and this afternoon when she called she 
just called me names and things, and I couldn’t 
explain to her, I felt so choked. She talked to 
me so, I couldn’t say a word. You don’t know. 
When people say such things to me something 
gets in my throat, and I feel like strangling and 
doing all sorts of things. I seem to shut right 
up when they go at me like that. I can’t speak. 
I just feel like — well, you don’t know what I 
feel like. Mrs. Newton asked me where father 
is, and I told her, and then she asked about Mr. 
Turner, for she wants to have things done to me, 
and I told her about him. I wouldn’t have her 
think I wanted to get out of it. She called me 
names and she thinks I taught Ruth to tell un- 
truths ; she said so. She says if Ruth doesn’t get 
well it will be my fault. O Delia ! I didn’t do it. 
Honestly I wasn’t to blame. But if Ruth is going 
to be sick and they think I did it — I want my 
mother ! How can I bear it without my mother ?” 


nan’s visitor 


35 


Delia gently patted tlie dark head that had 
flung itself into her lap. Her heart ached for 
the girl, but her simple mind was not equal to 
the task of consolation in a case like this. She 
could not cope with its difficulties. She knew 
Nan was to blame for much, but she thought in 
her heart that Mrs. Newton had no right to vent 
her wrath upon the girl without first having 
heard her side of the story. She could not con- 
sole Nan, she thought, without seeming to con- 
vict Mrs. Newton, and if she “ stood up for” 
Mrs. Newton, Nan would think her lacking in 
sympathy for herself. But in the midst of her 
wondering, up bobbed the head from under her 
hand. 

“ Mrs. Newton says I teach the children to 
do wrong. She says I’m a hoyden. She says 
I left Ruth in the cold and that I was a coward. 
She didn’t give me time to tell her about how I 
tried to get Ruth home myself, and that when I 
couldn’t, how I just howled for help. At least 
she didn’t want to listen when I got so I could 
speak. She says everybody thinks I’m bad, 
and they want to have me attended to. She 
thinks I taught Ruth to tell lies. Think, Delia, 
lies ! When she said that it was like knives ! 


36 


MISS WILDFIRE 


0 Delia f I know you’ve been awfully good to 
me always, and taken care of me since mamma 
died and all, but if it is so dreadful to play ball 
and skate and do things like that, why did you 
let me in the first place ? I hate to sew and do 
worsted work and be prim, but perhaps, if you 
had brought me up that way I might have got 
so I could stand it. Don’t you think if you had 
begun when I was a baby I might have ? I 
don’t want to have people hate me — honestly, I 
don’t. When they talk to me, and say I’m 
rowdyish because I walk fences and play ball 
with the boys and climb trees, I try not to show 
it, but it hurts me way deep down. I try to say 
something back so they’ll think I don’t care, 
and sometimes, if it hurts too much, I pretend 
not to hear, and that makes them madder than 
ever. They don’t know how, when it’s like that, 

1 can’t speak. Perhaps if you’d brought me up 
so, I might have liked dolls and thought it was 
fun to sit still and sew on baby clothes. But I 
don’t like to, and I can’t help it. Mrs. Newton 
thinks because I whistle and make a noise that 
I’m just mean and hateful and everything else. 
She thinks I don’t care. Why, Delia ! if any- 
thing happened to Ruth I’d feel exactly as if I 


nan’s visitor 


37 


didn’t want to live another day. I — I — O 
Delia!” 

For the first time she gave way, and, hiding 
her head in her arms, sobbed heavily. 

By this time Delia had risen to a point of 
burning anger against her child’s detractor. 
Her heart beat loyally for Nan, and she could 
scarcely restrain the words of resentment that 
rose to her lips, and that it would have been such 
unwisdom to have uttered. 

“ Never mind, Nannie lamb !” she said. 
“ It’ll be all right in the morning. The child 
will be all well in the morning. You’ll see she 
ain’t so bad as they think. And to-morrow I’ll 
go and tell them all- about it. And perhaps 
they’ll see then it’s better to be slow accusin’ 
where the guilt ain’t proved. Come, come ! 
Don’t cry so ! Why, Nannie, child, you haven’t 
cried like this since you were — I can’t tell how 
little. You never cry, Nan. You’re always 
so brave, and never give way. You’ll have a 
headache if you don’t stop. Dry your tears, 
and to-morrow it’ll be all right.” 

So, little by little, she soothed the girl, and 
by and by Nan ate her dinner, and then, when 
it was later, she went to bed. But when every- 


38 


MISS WILDFIRE 


thing was hushed and still a dark figure crept 
noiselessly down stairs and on into the outer 
darkness. Down the street it stole until it had 
reached a house, which, alone in all the row of 
darkened barrack-like dwellings, showed a 
dimly lit window to the night. There it halted. 
And there it stood, like a faithful sentinel, only 
deserting its post when the gray light of early 
morning rose slowly oyer the world and the city 
was astir once more. 


CHAPTER III 


MR. TURNER’S PLAN 

“ I am deeply sorry,” said Mr. Turner, “ and 
can only apologize in ray friend’s name for any 
annoyance his daughter may have caused you. 
Of course I cannot agree with you that she 
annoys you purposely. A child of William 
Cutler could not well be other than large- 
hearted and generous. She may be a little un- 
disciplined perhaps, but it shall be attended to, 
Madam ! I assure you the matter shall be 
attended to.” 

Mrs. Newton rose. She had called upon Mr. 
Turner to state her complaint against Nan Cut- 
ler. Now that was accomplished she would go ; 
only she made a mental vow that if the lawyer 
were not as good as his word, if he did not take 
immediate steps toward rectifying the matter, 
she would follow it up herself and see that she 
was relieved of what, in her anger, she called 
“ that common nuisance.” 

Meantime Nan herself was going about with 

39 


40 


MISS WILDFIRE 


a dead load of misery on her heart. Delia had 
gone to the Newton’s house early in the morn- 
ing to inquire after the sick child’s condition 
and to repeat Nan’s story to her mother, but 
that lady was “ not at home,” and Delia under- 
stood that to mean that Mrs. Newton declined 
to receive either her or her explanation. She 
went home angry and disappointed. 

“ I guess the little girl ain’t much hurt,” she 
announced to Nan. “ She’s in bed to he sure, 
but I guess that’s more on account of her cold 
than anything else. She isn’t going to be crip- 
pled, Nan, now don’t you fret. She’ll be all 
right. Now you see if she ain’t.” 

Nan’s own flushed cheeks and brilliant eyes, 
the result of her yesterday’s chilly adventures, 
worried the good woman not a little. If she 
had dared she would have liked to “ coddle her 
child,” but Nan was not one of the coddling 
kind, and would have scorned being made a baby 
of. She went about the house in one of her un- 
happy moods, restless and wretched and unable 
to amuse herself, and finding the hours never- 
endingly long. 

When the bell rang she welcomed the sound 
as a grateful diversion and ran to the balusters 


MR. TURNER^ PLAN 


41 


and hung over the railing to see who might be 
the new-comer. She was glad of any break in 
the monotony of such a miserable day. 

When Delia opened the door and admitted 
Mr. Turner, Nan’s heart gave a big leap. Vis- 
ions of what might be in store for her, the result 
of Mrs. Newton’s action against her, thronged 
her brain and made her shudder with apprehen- 
sion. What if Mr. Turner had come to say that 
she was to be sent to the House of Correction, 
or some horrid boarding-school where one don’t 
get enough to eat and where one couldn’t poke 
one’s nose outside the door. A set expression 
settled on the girl’s face that did not augur well 
for her reception of whatever plan the lawyer 
might have to propose. 

When Delia came to call her, she sighed. She 
saw plainly enough that Nan’s “ contrary fit ” 
was on, and she wondered how much the lawyer 
would accomplish by his visit under the circum- 
stances. 

Nan went down to him sullenly determined 
to stand by her guns and absolutely refuse to be 
committed to either a reformatory or any other 
establishment of a similar character. 

“ How do you do, my dear ?” was Mr. Tur- 


42 


MISS WILDFIRE 


ner’s kindly greeting as the girl entered the 
room. 

Nan replied, “Very well, sir,” thinking, at 
the same time, that she would not be disarmed 
by kindness nor permit herself to be cajoled 
into doing anything she did not wish to do. No 
one really had the right to order her about, and 
she would resolutely oppose any one who as- 
sumed such a right. 

But presently she found herself telling her 
father’s friend the story of yesterday’s disaster, 
quite simply and with entire willingness. 

“ So,” Mr. Turner said at the conclusion, “ I 
thought that the good lady must have made a 
mistake. I felt pretty sure your father’s daugh- 
ter would never be guilty of cowardice nor of 
deliberately planning to destroy the peace of 
any one. I knew you could not be the girl 
Mrs. Newton described. She seemed to think 
you were — why, my dear, she gave me to under- 
stand that you were quite wild and lawless ; that 
you were a bad influence in the neighborhood, 
and that you were so with full consciousness of 
what you were doing. We must explain to Mrs. 
Newton ! We must explain !” 

“ I don’t lie !” declared Nan. “And I’m not 


MR. TURNER^ PLAN 


43 


a coward, and I don’t try to make her mad or 
hurt her children, but I do climb trees and I do 
race and do figures on roller-skates, and I do 
do the rest of the things she says I do and that 
she doesn’t like.” 

“And your school?” ventured the lawyer. 

“ I don’t go any more,” announced Nan. “ I 
had a fight with one of the teachers, and so I 
left.” 

Mr. Turner gazed suddenly upon the floor. 

“And this ‘ fight ’ with the teacher ? Do you 
remember the cause of the disturbance?” he 
asked, looking up after a moment. 

“She struck me with her ruler. I had a 
rubber baby doll, it was the weeniest thing you 
ever saw, and she wore false puffs, Miss Fowler 
did, and one day, when I was at the blackboard 
and she was looking the other way, I just 
dropped the baby doll into one of the puffs that 
the hair-pin had come out of, and that was 
standing up on end, and it looked so funny on 
her head, the puff with the baby doll standing 
in it, that all the girls laughed, and then she 
asked me what I had done, and I told her, and 
she struck me. I wouldn’t have said anything 
if she had just punished me. I knew it was 


44 


MISS WILDFIRE 


wrong to pop that doll on her head, hut I just 
couldn’t help it — it looked too funny. But 
when she struck me ! Well, I won’t be struck 
by any one — and so I left.” 

The lawyer meditated in silence for a moment. 
Then he said : 

“ Well, my dear, I think I understand the 
condition of things here. Without doubt it is 
high time something were done. Your father, 
when he went away, gave me full authority to 
make such arrangements for you as I might feel 
were necessary, but until now I have rather 
avoided taking upon myself any responsibility. 
Possibly I have neglected my duty toward you. 
But now all that shall be changed. Don’t you 
think if I were to send you — ” 

Nan’s eyes blazed. So it was as she had felt 
sure it would be ! She was to be sent away ! 
She did not wait for the sentence to be finished. 

“Send me to the House of Correction? I 
won’t go, sir ! I’ll run away first ! Or a horrid 
boarding-school, neither. I guess my father 
didn’t mean me to be made unhappy, Mr. Turner ; 
I guess he didn’t mean any one to have authority 
to send me to awful places just because Mrs. 
Newton says so, away from Delia and things. 


MR. TURNER’S PLAN 


45 


You needn’t send me anywhere, for I’ll run 
away as sure as you do.” 

“ Slowly — slowly !” cautioned Mr. Turner. 
“ You go too fast! If you had waited for me 
to finish my sentence you would have discov- 
ered that I meant to send you neither to the 
House of Correction,” here his eyes twinkled 
with amusement, “ nor to a ‘ horrid boarding- 
school.’ What I was about to say was that I 
propose to send you a lady who will teach you 
here at home, who will be a friend and compan- 
ion to you and whom you will be sure to love. 
It is rather a curious coincidence that just the 
other day I was talking to a lady who is anxious 
to procure j ust such a position as this with you, 
and I am rather inclined to think that she would 
be willing to come here and undertake it. At 
all events, I have written to her asking her to 
consider the plan and in a day or so I shall 
know her decision. If she concludes to come — 
if I can induce her to come — I shall feel that 
you are very fortunate. You will forgive me if 
I say that while I disagree with Mrs. Newton in 
most respects regarding you, I feel with her 
that you are somewhat — well, somewhat ungov- 
erned and in need of just the sort of discipline 


46 


MISS WILDFIRE 


that I am sure Miss — the lady I speak of can 
maintain.” 

He paused a moment, but when he saw that 
Nan made no comment or objection he continued 
placidly : 

“ You will hear from me in the course of a 
day or so, as soon as I receive word from the 
lady herself. As I said, you will be very for- 
tunate if I can secure her services for you — 
more fortunate than she will be, I fear,” he said 
to himself, catching a glimpse of Nan’s set 
mouth and flashing eyes as he made his way to 
the door. Later* when he recalled her expres- 
sion, he was almost inclined to hope that the 
lady would decide to refuse the office. He 
thought her acceptance of it might involve her 
in rather more serious difficulties than he had 
foreseen when he wrote to her in the first place. 

As a matter of fact, Nan was in a rage at the 
thought of a stranger coming into the house to 
interfere with her and Delia, to teach her what 
she did not want to learn, and to govern her 
when her sole idea of happiness was to be free 
and untrammeled. Even Delia resented the 
new-comer’s intrusion. Had she managed the 
house for fourteen years now, ever since Mrs. 


MR. TURNER'S PLAN 


47 


Cutler's death, only to be set aside and ruled 
over by the first stranger who chose to imagine 
her position of governess to Nan gave her the right 
to interfere in household affairs ? For of course 
she would interfere. Nan had drawn a vivid 
mental picture of the governess, which through 
her persistence in repetition, had begun to seem 
an actual description to herself and Delia. 

“ She's tall and thin and lanky and old !" 
declared the girl whenever the governess, who 
had accepted the appointment, was mentioned. 
“ She has horrid sharp eyes that s]3y out every- 
thing, and she wears glasses. She'll never laugh 
because she'll say ‘ giggling is frivolous,' that's 
what Miss Fowler used to say, and she'll talk 
arithmetic and grammar and geography the 
whole blessed time. She’ll snoop in your closets, 
Delia, and into my bureau drawers, and she'll 
find out everything we don't want her to know. 
Her hair is black and shiny, and I guess she 
parts it in the middle and makes it come to the 
back of her head in a little hard knot. Oh ! I 
know just how she looks ! I can see her every 
time I shut my eyes — the horrid thing! Just 
like Miss Fowler at school ! And how I’ll hate 
her ! I'll hate her just as much as I did Miss 


48 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Fowler. I’ll bate her more, because I can never 
get rid of her : she’ll always be here. Don’t 
you fix up her room a single bit, Delia. Make 
it look as awful as you can. Then perhaps she 
won’t like it and’ll leave. I guess after a little 
while she won’t think it agrees with her to live 
here. Then we two’ll be alone again, and I tell 
you, won’t we be glad, Delia?” 

In her heart Delia thought they would. 

She did not follow Nan’s advice to make the 
governess’ room look “ as awful as she could.” 
She swept and dusted it thoroughly, and set all 
the furniture in place, as she had been accus- 
tomed to do for the last fourteen years, and 
when she had finished the jdace was as uninvit- 
ing as even Nan could have desired. In fact, 
there was nothing attractive in the whole house. 
The furniture was all good and substantial, but 
Delia had a way of ranging it against the walls 
in a manner that made it seem stiff and uncom- 
promising. When a piece needed repairing, 
and with Nan about, many a piece needed re- 
pairing often, it was stowed out of sight in 
the trunk-room, or the cellar, and the car- 
pets, which had been rich and fashionable in 
their day, were allowed to lie now long after 


MR. TURNER’S PLAN 


49 


they had become threadbare and faded. Delia 
kept the handsome paintings veiled in tarlatan 
winter and summer, and she never removed the 
slip-covers from the parlor sofas and chairs, 
whatever the season might be. Nan did not 
care, because she knew nothing different, and 
there was no loving, artful hand to make the 
best of the things and turn the house into a 
home. 

Mrs. Newton had shivered as she entered the 
place ; it seemed dark and cold and forbidding 
to her, and she felt the mother-want at every 
turn, but this had not made her any more 
lenient with Nan. Perhaps the governess would 
make no allowances either. Delia made up her 
mind that if things really came to the pass 
where Nan was being abused, she in person 
would “ just step in and say her say, if it lost 
her her place.” She often talked of things 
losing her her place when the fact was that she 
herself was the place : if it had not been for her 
the house must have been closed, and Nan sent 
to boarding-school. Mr. Cutler would never 
have trusted the care of his girl to a strange 
servant. 

“ Yes, Ma’am,” Delia said to herself, as she 

4 


50 


MISS WILDFIRE 


pushed the governess’ bed flat up against the 
wall. “Yes, Ma’am! if I see her going for to 
abuse Nan, I’ll set to and give her a piece of my 
mind such as she ain’t likely to have got in one 
while, I tell you that,” and she gave the bureau 
a vicious tweak and pulled down the shade with 
a resentful jerk. 

When Nan saw the room she was disgusted. 

“ Why, Delia Connor ! you haven’t done a 
single thing I told you to,” she cried out angrily. 

“ I’ve swept and dusted it and that’s all there 
was to do,” retorted Delia. 

“It looks perfectly lovely,” resumed Nan, 
stamping her foot. “ Do you s’pose I want her 
to think we’re glad to have her, and that we’ve 
prepared for her? Well, I guess not! If she 
once gets into as good a room as this she’ll never 
go — she’ll just hang on and on, and nothing in 
the world will make her budge.” 

“ What do you want me to do ?” asked Delia 
with irritation. 

Nan looked at her scornfully for a moment. 
“ Do ? Why, what I told you to do ! Make the 
room look awful — perfectly hideous. Make it 
so she can’t help but see we don’t want her 
here. Make it a hint — and a strong one too.” 


MR. TURNER’S PLAN 


51 


Delia folded her arms deliberately. “ Well, 
whatever you want to act like, Nan,” she said, 
“ I can tell you I ain’t going to do anything 
.unladylike, so there !” and she stalked out of the 
room with dignity. 

. Nan surveyed the place in silence. What 
was to be done ? If she removed all the furni- 
ture but the bed and the bureau and left the 
governess nothing to sit down on, it would only 
reflect discreditably upon the family’s supply of 
household goods. If she carefully sifted back 
the dust Delia had just removed, it would 
merely prove that the people in this house were 
of a slovenly and careless habit, and that they 
were sadly in need of some one to oversee their 
work. Moreover, would a person as dull of 
feeling as this governess must be, appreciate the 
hint conveyed in so delicate and indirect a man- 
ner? No. She would be sure to lose the point. 
Nan felt it would never do to take any risk of 
her misunderstanding. Whatever she did must 
be unmistakable and absolutely direct. 

She racked her brain to discover just the 
right thing, but she was rewarded by no bril- 
liant idea, and she felt crosser than ever by the 
time noon had arrived. But suddenly, at the 


52 


MISS WILDFIRE 


luncheon table, she gave a wild leap from her 
chair and clapped her hands frantically, while 
Delia almost let a dish fall in her surprise at 
this sudden and unexpected demonstration. 

“ For the land’s sake, what is it now?” she 
demanded, while Nan caught her around the 
waist and whirled her about the room, vegetable 
dish and all. 

“ I’ve got it ! I’ve got it !” screamed the girl, 
convulsed with inward laughter. “ I’ve got the 
best scheme in the world. Delia, you old duck ! 
Oh, won’t it settle her though ! Won’t it settle 
her ?” But she would not reveal who was to be 
settled, nor how, though Delia pleaded earnestly 
to be enlightened and even offered to help her 
make caramels as a bribe. 

“ No, thank you, Ma’am ! I wouldn’t have 
time to boil ’em. I’m going to be as busy as a 
beaver all the afternoon, so no matter wliat 
ha]3pens don’t you disturb me,” continued Nan, 
importantly. 

Delia shrewdly suspected that the scheme 
afoot had something to do with the governess, 
but she did not dare suggest it. 

“ Oh, well, what I don’t know I can’t cry 
over,” she said to herself, “ and when Nan’s like 


MR. TURNER^ PLAN 


53 


this, all the king’s horses and all the king’s 
men couldn’t stop her, so I might as well hold 
my tongue. But I’ll say this much, I don’t 
envy that governess her job, whoever she may 
be.” 

Meanwhile Nan had gone to her own room and 
shut and locked the door. Her next move was 
to take her night-dress from its hook and slip it 
over her head. 

“ Now I’m going to rehearse,” she announced 
to her reflection in the glass. “ First I must 
get my eyes to seem kind of wide and starey. 
No ! not this way. They must look like 
licorice-drops in milk. There ! that’s better ! 
All expressionless, and that kind of thing. I 
s’pose I might shut ’em, some somnabulists do ; 
but then I’d be sure to trip over the furniture 
and stub my toes, and give the whole business 
away. No, I must keep my eyes open ; that’s 
certain. Then I must glide wdien I walk. My 
step must be light and ghostly and noiseless. 
I must be sure to have it ghostly and noiseless. 
Now — eyes staring — one, two, three — step 
ghostly and noiseless — Oh, bother ! What busi- 
ness had that footstool in my way ? If I 
knock things over like that I’ll wake the house, 


54 


MISS WILDFIRE 


and Delia would know in a minute what I was 
up to. There ! get into the corner, you old 
thing ! Now again ! Eyes staring — step 
ghostly — and noiseless — voice low and mourn- 
ful, but I must manage to make her understand 
every word. Now once more — voice low and 
mournful — 

“ Alas ! alas! why did she come? — why did 
she come ? (No, I can’t say that ! It sounds 
too much like ‘ Why did he die ! Why did he 
die !’ But the alas is good ! That sounds real 
creepy and weird.) Now then — Alas ! alas ! 
This is the worst thing that ever happened to 
me in all my life ! My dear, old home ! To 
think that anybody who isn’t wanted should 
come and push herself like this into my dear, 
old home ! O father ! father ! come home 
from Bombay, and save me from this awful 
woman. Turn her out of the house ! Make 
her go back where she came from ! Her hated 
form haunts me in my sleep, and I dream 
all night of her as I see her in the daytime — 
tall — and thin — and lanky — with her hair all 
dragged into that ugly little knob behind at the 
back of her head ! O father ! father ! her 
eyes are like needles ! They prick me when 


MR. TURNER S PLAN 


55 


she looks. Save me ! — save me ! My heart 
will break if some one doesn’t come and rescue 
me from this terrible person. Take her away — 
take her away ! Ah — I see her ! I see her ! 
Get away — get away ! You awful creature ! 
Don’t you know you are causing an innocent 
girl to perish in her youth ? Alas, she won’t 
go ! Then listen, reckless woman ! and re- 
member this warning — ‘ the way of intruders is 
hard V 

“ There ! that ends it off with a sort of threat- 
ening dreadfulness that ought to scare her stiff. 
After I’ve said that in a whisper to freeze her 
blood, I’ll turn silently from her bedside and 
glide noiselessly from the room, wringing my 
hair and tearing my hands ; no, I mean just the 
other way, and if that doesn’t fix her, why — I’ll 
have to go over it all again, of course, so I 
won’t forget. Perhaps it would be a good idea 
to write it down and learn it off by heart.” 

The idea in fact recommended itself so thor- 
oughly to her that she followed her own sug- 
gestion without further delay and wrote off the 
entire harangue at once, making it, if possible, 
even more eloquent and harrowing than it had 
been in the original. It seemed a very long, 


56 


MISS WILDFIKE 


wearisome task, to commit it all to memory, but 
she did not grudge the trouble. She had never 
attempted anything that looked like study with 
so much willingness. The afternoon slipped 
away like a dream, and as soon as dinner was 
over she set to work again, and by bed-time 
had the thing pretty well under control. When- 
ever she halted or stumbled she went over it all 
again with the most patient perseverance. 

“ I suppose if I had stuck to things at school 
like this I’d have been at the head of the class,” 
she said to herself with a whimsical sense of 
her own perversity. 

Delia was completely nonplused. She could 
not imagine what “ that child was up to.’’ There 
were no evidences anywhere of the means 
she was going to employ in the governess’ initia- 
tion. Her room was in perfect order, and in 
Nan’s own chamber nothing was unusually amiss. 
She got no satisfaction from the girl herself, 
who kept her lips tightly closed, except when 
she was mumbling over her harangue. It was 
terribly perplexing — and ominous. 

“ Good land !” thought Delia in real anxiety, 
“ I only hope she ain’t going to do anything too 
dreadful. I declare, if it weren’t that I’m so 


57 


MR. TURNERS TLAN 

soft where Nannie is concerned I’d say I’d be 
glad that some one’s coming who may be up to 
managin’ her. I’m free to confess I ain’t. If 
only her mother had lived ! Or, if only my 
dear Miss Belle hadn’t gone off to the ends of 
the earth — ! Miss Belle could have managed 
her ! No one could resist Miss Belle, bless her ! 
Ah, dear me, dear me ! It’s fifteen years, and 
to think, I’ll never see her face again !” 


CHAPTER IV 


THE GOVERNESS 

The morning of tlie expected governess’ ar- 
rival dawned cold and dreary. Rain fell in 
torrents, and the streets were drenched and 
slippery with slush. All day Nan moped 
in unhappy expectation of her anticipated 
thralldom. At every sound of rumbling wheels 
before the door she would fly to the window, 
torturing herself with the belief that this was 
the hack which was conveying the tyrant-gov- 
erness to the victim-pupil, and she felt a curious 
sort of disappointment when no such vehicle 
appeared and no such personage arrived, for 
always the rumbling wheels belonged to some 
grocer’s cart or butcher’s wagon, and by even- 
ing the invader had still not appeared. Then 
Nan plucked up courage. 

“ I shouldn’t wonder if she had been switched 
off the road,” she said to Delia, inclining to be 
quite jolly at the mere thought of such a grate- 
ful possibility. And she pictured to herself an 
58 


THE GOVERNESS 


59 


accommodating engine whizzing the unwelcome 
guest off into some remote region from which 
she would never see the desirability of return- 
ing. Nan wished her no ill, but she did not 
wish herself ill either. She ate her dinner 
quite contentedly, and was just going to settle 
down comfortably to some thrilling tale of ad- 
venture when Br — r — r ! went the bell, and she 
knew her fate had descended upon her. 

She flew to the parlor and hid behind the 
folding-door. She heard Delia ascend the base- 
ment stairs. She heard her come along the 
hall, and then — it was very strange, but Nan 
really thought she heard her give a smothered 
exclamation that was instantly followed by the 
word of warning, “ Hush !” — but she must have 
been mistaken, for it was only Mr. Turner who 
was speaking. He was asking for Nan herself. 
She slipped from behind the door with the hope 
at her heart that even now, at the last minute, the 
governess had “ backed out.” Certainly it looked 
as if she had, since she saw only the lawyer 
standing by the hat-stand. She held out her 
hand to him with a real smile of greeting when 
— he stepped aside and there stood the gov- 
erness. 


60 


MISS WILDFIRE 


At first Nan thought it must be some little 
girl, so small and slender looked the figure be- 
side that of the tall man. The eyes beneath 
the rain-soaked brim of the governess’ hat were 
soft and dark ; her hair was brown, and the 
damp wind had blown it into innumerable little 
curls and tendrils about her temples, where it 
took on a ruddy sheen in the gas light. Her 
nose was delicate and short ; her mouth, which 
was not small, was fascinating from the fact 
that the parting lips disclosed two rows of per- 
fect teeth. She had two dimples that came and 
went as she smiled, and in her chin was a small 
cleft that was quivering a little, Nan noticed. 
She thought the governess looked as if she were 
going to cry. Her eyes seemed somewhat “ teary 
round the lashes,” and there was no doubt about 
it — her chin was quivering. 

“ Pooh !” thought Nan. “ I might have saved 
myself all that worry. She’s as afraid as she can 
be. I guess I’ll be able to manage her as easy as 
pie.” 

But now Mr. Turner was addressing her. 

“ Nan,” he was saying, “ this is Miss Blake. 
Can’t you welcome her to her new home, my 
dear ?” 


THE GOVERNESS 


61 


Nan hung back in awkward silence, but the 
new governess did not give her the opportunity 
to make the moment an embarrassing one. She 
stepped forward, and, taking the girl’s hand in 
her own, said softly : 

“ Mr. Turner lias told me all about you. I 
hope we shall be very happy together.” 

She did not attempt to kiss her. 

Nan murmured an indistinct “ Yes’m,” and 
shrank back against the wall. Delia stood be- 
side the new governess with a very curious 
expression on her face. For a moment there 
was silence, and then Mr. Turner broke in upon 
it with : 

“ I think it would be well if Miss Blake were 
to be shown to her room at once. She is drenched 
with the rain and must be cold and hungry. 
Will you be good enough, Delia, to get her 
something to eat while Nan takes her up- 
stairs ?” 

Nan started forward quickly at the note of 
rebuke in the lawyer’s voice. 

“ Oh, won’t you come to your room ?” she 
asked. 

She vaguely wondered what made Delia look 
so strange and act in such a dazed, uncertain 


62 


MISS WILDFIRE 


fashion. She thought she must be a sad “ ’fraid- 
cat ” to be overawed by such a little personage 
as the new governess. 

“ Now I will say good-night,” said Mr. 
Turner to Miss Blake, as she started to follow 
Nan above. “ I hoj)e,” he added in an under- 
tone, taking her hand, “ that you will be happy. 
Don’t become discouraged. Send for me when- 
ever you need me. I am always at your 
service.” 

She silently bowed her thanks. Somehow 
she found it difficult to speak just then. She 
had been tired and cold before she entered the 
house, but it seemed to her she had not 
known weariness or chill until now. She felt 
herself shiver as she turned away from the 
lawyer and heard the door close behind him. 
He seemed to be leaving her alone with an 
enemy. 

Nan certainly looked anything but amicable. 

“ Here’s your room,” she announced, as they 
reached the upper landing. She flung open a 
door, and the new governess found herself step- 
ping forth into utter darkness, where Nan her- 
self was groping about for matches. The air 
of the place was cold and damp. It had the 


THE GOVERNESS 


63 


feel of a room tliat was unused. It was barren 
and cheerless. But in the second preceding 
Nan's discovery of the matches Miss Blake 
hoped that when the gas was lit it would seem 
more inviting. But it did not. It was bare and 
undecorated, and presented anything but an 
attractive appearance. 

The stranger drew two long pins from her hat 
without saying a word. Nan turned on her heel 
and made to leave the room. 

“ Will you please tell me where I can find 
some warm water ?” inquired Miss Blake. 

“ Washstand in that little dressing-room. 
Left-hand faucet," announced Nan, curtly, and 
marched away. 

The governess gently closed the door. 

Perhaps if Nan had remained there to see she 
would have wondered if Miss Blake were quite 
in her right mind. Her behavior was certainly 
extraordinary. The tears rained down her 
cheeks, and she did not try to stop them. She 
just stood in the middle of the floor and gazed 
about at the awkwardly-placed furniture, the 
faded carpet, the bare walls, and the ugly mantel- 
piece as if she could not take her eyes from 
them. She turned slowly from one thing to 


64 


MISS WILDFIRE 


another, and presently, in a sort of timid, hungry 
way, she stretched out her hand and touched 
each separate object with her caressing fingers, 
crying very hard the while and murmuring to 
herself in so low a voice that no one could have 
overheard. 

Even Nan must have softened to her as she 
stood there crying softly and smiling through 
her tears at this bare and unfamiliar room. 
Even Nan must have been moved to wonder 
what Miss Blake had suffered that she was 
so glad to get into such an uninviting shelter as 
this. 

But Nan was down stairs in the basement 
watching Delia prepare a dainty supper for the 
governess, and scowling at her as she saw to 
what trouble she went to make it appetizing 
and delicate. 

“ There, Delia Connor !” she burst out resent- 
fully, “ you’re the worst turn-coat 1 ever saw in 
my life ! This very afternoon you looked black 
as thunder when you thought she had come, 
and now you are just dancing attendance on 
her, as if she was the best friend you ever 
had!” 

“ Perhaps she is,” responded Delia, placing 


THE GOVERNESS 


65 


sprigs of parsley neatly about the sliced chicken 
and setting the coffee-pot on the range. 

Nan tossed her head scornfully. “Well, I 
like that ! I should think you’d be ashamed ! 
A perfect stranger like her !” 

Delia did not answer. She was crushing ice 
for the olives, and as Nan spoke she bent her 
face over the table and pounded away in 
silence. But when she had finished, she lifted 
her head and said, amiably : 

“ Oh, you can’t tell. By the looks of her I 
should think she is a good-natured little body. 
She has the true eyes. When you see eyes like 
that you can mostly be sure they’ve an honest 
soul behind ’em. I shouldn’t wonder if she’d 
be a good friend to any one who’d let her.” 

“ Huh !” sneered Nan, wrathfully, “ that 
means, I s’pose, that you intend to let her. 
Never talk to me of turn-coats any more, Delia 
Connor !” 

Delia caught up a coal-hod and strode delib- 
erately off toward the cellar stairs. When she 
came back she was laden down with kindlings 
and coal. 

“ What you going to do with those ?” de- 
manded Nan, imperatively. 

5 


66 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Build a fire in the library. I guess a 
spark ’ll look good to the poor little soul — 
coming in out of the cold and wet.” 

This was the last straw. Nan’s eyes flashed, 
and she tore after Delia upstairs, scolding as 
fast as the words would come. 

“ The idea ! The idea ! A fire ! ‘Poor little 
soul !’ And many’s the time I’ve come in out 
of the cold and you haven’t even as much as lit 
the gas ! Oh, no ; never mind me ! I can come 
in out of the cold till every tooth in my head 
chatters, and you wouldn’t care a straw. Why, 
Delia Connor, we never have that fire lit. You 
just know we don’t ! There hasn’t been a fire in 
that grate since daddy went away ! You know 
very well there hasn’t, and now the first thing 
you do is to light it for that horrid governess- 
woman that’s going to boss you ’round like any- 
thing, and make me do all sorts of hateful things. 
I tell you what it is, Delia Connor, you don’t 
care a single thing about me. I know just how 
’twill be. You’ll help her to do anything she 
wants to, and you’ll never stand up for me a bit. 
It’s mean of you, Delia ! It’s downright mean 
of you. And it’s just because she’s got those 
dimples and things, and smiles at you as if you 


THE GOVERNESS 


67 


were liQr best friend. But she needn’t think 
slie can manage me. I’m not going to be 
ordered about by her, if she has got a soft voice 
and shiny eyes !” 

Nan and the fire sputtered and blazed as 
though they were trying to see which could 
outdo the other, and Delia stood by looking first 
at this one and then at that with a good deal 
less fear of the sparks from the grate than of 
those from Nan’s eyes. 

She knew better than to try to pacify the girl 
when her temper was at such a white-heat, and 
she inwardly wondered what would happen if 
the governess should come down while it was 
yet at its worst. As if in answer to her ques- 
tion they heard the sound of an opening door 
above, and immediately after Miss Blake’s 
light steps upon the stairs. Nan bit a word 
off square in the middle and set her lips 
tightly together. Delia removed the “ blow- 
er ” from the grate and the dancing flames 
leaped high up the chimney and sent a ruddy 
glow about the room. The only sounds to be 
heard were the comfortable ticking of the 
tall clock in the corner and the low purring 
of the fire behind its bars. Miss Blake came 


68 


3IISS WILDFIRE 


down the hall and paused on the library 
threshold. 

“Oh, how jolly !” she cried, clapping her 
hands like a delighted child and running for- 
ward eagerly to the hearth. “ How perfectly 
jolly ! Don’t you think an open fire is the most 
comfortable thing in the world ? And I always 
loved this one particularly — I mean this kind,” 
she corrected herself quickly. 

Nan made no response. She sat in her 
father’s study-chair as stiff and stolid as a lay- 
figure in a shop window, with her lips drawn 
primly over her teeth. 

Miss Blake was, or pretended to be, uncon- 
scious of her attitude, however, and went on 
talking as easily as though she had the most 
appreciative of listeners. 

“ When I was a little girl I used to love to 
cuddle down here on the hearth-rug — I mean I 
used to love to cuddle down on the hearth-rug 
and look into the burning coals. I used to see 
all sorts of wonderful things in the flames. They 
used to tell me I’d ‘ singe my curly pow a- 
biggiiT castles in the air,’ but I didn’t mind, did 
I — I mean I didn’t mind,” she caught herself up 
quickly. 


THE GOVERNESS 


69 


Delia coughed behind her hand and hurriedly 
left the room in order to get Miss Blake’s sup- 
per, which she meant to serve upstairs for the 
occasion. 

As soon as she was gone the new governess 
turned toward Nan in a strange apologetic sort 
of way and said : 

“I think, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just cuddle 
down on the rug as I used to do when — when I 
was a little girl. It seems so good to get back 
— to an open fire that it makes me quite home- 
sick. You won’t mind, will you?” 

Nan gave a grunt that was meant for “ No,” 
and the new governess plumped down upon the 
floor with her chin in her palms and her elbows 
on her knees, looking so much like a little girl 
that for a second Nan had a wild impulse to 
plump down beside her and inquire, by way of 
opening the acquaintance — 

“ Say, does 'your hair curl like that naturally 
— or does your mother put it up at night ?” or 
something equally introductory and to the point. 
But of course she did no such thing, and when 
Delia reappeared she found them regarding the 
fire in j^erfect silence. 

At the sound of her step Miss Blake 


70 


MISS WILDFIRE 


lifted lier head and gave Nan a bewildering 
smile. 

“ How stupid I have been ! Do forgive me !” 
she said. “We have been having what the 
Germans call ‘ an English conversation/ haven’t 
we ? I was thinking so hard I quite forgot you 
— and myself. Ah, what a pretty supper ! But 
I put you to so much trouble,” and she turned on 
Delia two very grateful eyes, while she jumped 
to her feet with the lightest possible ease. 

Delia beamed down upon her beatifically and 
gave an extra touch to the dainty tray. Nan 
from her chair scowled darkly upon the whole 
performance. Delia had deserted her cause ; 
had gone over bodily to the enemy — that was 
plain. But she needn’t flaunt her defection in 
Nan’s very face. Why, it was positively dis- 
graceful the way Delia fetched and carried for 
this person already, and looked, all the while, as 
if she could hardly keep from dancing for very 
joy at the privilege. Well, this governess 
needn’t think that Nan was the kind to be won 
over by a few smiles and some flickering dimples. 
When Nan said a thing she meant it and she 
stuck to it, too. She wasn’t a turn-coat like 
some folks she knew. 


THE GOVERNESS 


71 


“ ‘ Alas, alas ! my dear old home — ! To think 
that anybody who isn’t wanted should come and 
push herself like this into my dear old home ! 
Oh, father, her eyes are like — ’ Good gracious ! 
all that description part would have to be 
changed !” Nan pulled herself together with a 
visible jerk. How could she speak of “ needly 
eyes ” when those of the governess were so deep 
and soft and gray that they made you feel like 
— no, they didn’t either ; but they weren’t 
needly all the same. No ! That whole de- 
scription part would have to be changed. 
Bother ! Well, if it came to that she guessed 
she could do it ! “ Her hated form haunts me 

in my sleep, and I dream of her all night as I 
see her in the daytime — little and dear, with her 
hair all shimmery and soft and her eyes kind 
of kissing you softly all the time, and — ” Good- 
ness ! that would never do ! Why it would be 
crazy to call on one’s father to rescue one from 
a person like that. Well, she’d leave out the 
description altogether, that’s what she’d do. 
She— 

“Did you speak?” asked the governess, in 
her musical voice, turning toward Nan inquir- 
ingly, and then the girl suddenly realized 


72 


MISS WILDFIRE 


that she had been mumbling her thoughts 
aloud. 

“ No, I didn’t/’ she responded, with irrita- 
tion. “ It was too bad,” she declared to herself 
it was, “ that after all the trouble she had taken 
to learn the thing by heart, she should be pes- 
tered to death by haying to make changes in it 
this way — at the last minute, too. Why wasn’t 
Miss Blake tall and lanky and needly-eyed 
and a fright, she’d like to know ? It was just 
like her, though ! So contrary ! To change 
about and upset all Nan’s plans. Well, as long 
as there was so much fuss about the thing, she 
s’posed she’d give it up.” 

“ She’s so little, it’ll be easy enough to man- 
age her. I guess it isn’t worth while. I can 
just say, to-morrow or next day, 4 Miss Blake, 
I’ve come to the conclusion you don’t suit/ and 
she’ll go right off. She may cry a little, but I 
won’t mind that ; and if she begs to stay, I’ll 
say, 4 Now there’s no use teasing ! When I once 
say a thing I mean it !’ and that will settle her 
once for all.” 

Delia was pressing the governess to take more 
supper when Nan again waked to what was 
going on about her. 


THE GOVERNESS 


73 


“ Why, you don’t eat any more than you used 
— I mean than a bird. Do take a little more 
chicken, do ! And a cup of coffee, nice and 
hot, that’s a good — lady !” 

It was really too humiliating ! It was more 
than Nan could bear. She sprang to her feet 
and without a word — with nothing but a glance 
of withering scorn at Delia — swept out of the 
room and upstairs to bed. 

Miss Blake looked after her with strange, 
wondering eyes, but made no attempt to follow 
her. She just turned to Delia and stretched out 
her hands. 

“ O Delia ! Delia !” she faltered, brokenly. 

The woman came to her and took both the 
little hands in hers. “ Bless you, dearie !” she 
cried. “ That I ever lived to see the day ! 
There, there, lamb, don’t cry so, Allanah ! See, 
I’m not crying, am I now ?” sobbed she, kneel- 
ing beside the stranger and hugging her knees 
wildly. “ Oh, but it’s glad I am to see your 
dear face again ! Now tell me all about it — 
how you came to know we need you so bad ?” 


CHAPTER V 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 

Nan, iii spite of the fact that she assured her- 
self her heart was broken, fell asleep as soon as 
her head touched the pillow. She slept heavily 
customarily hut to-night her rest was fitful and 
troubled. She kept dreaming strange dreams 
that caused her to twitch in her sleep and give 
queer little cries of distress and moans of fret- 
fulness. Sometimes she seemed to be trying to 
overtake something that was constantly eluding 
her. First it was a long, lank creature with 
piercing eyes and a knob at the back of its head 
which it seemed to be Nan’s duty, not to say 
pleasure, to shoot off with a paper of needles. 
Then it was something she must recollect or be 
put to death for forgetting ; some awful harangue 
that she had been doomed to deliver before 
Delia and a vast crowd of other people, all of 
whom were staring at her regretfully and mur- 
muring to one another that it was a shame such 
a hoyden should be allowed to live ; and again 
74 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


75 


it was some dainty little creature with tender 
eyes and shining hair that Nan longed to ‘fol- 
low but could not because of something inside 
her breast that held her back and would not let 
her call. 

Miss Blake did not go to her room until very 
late. She and Delia kept up a steady stream of 
conversation until long after midnight, and even 
then the governess would not have paused if Delia 
had not been struck with sudden compunction. 

“ Dear heart alive !” she cried, scrambling to 
her feet hastily as the clock chimed twelve. 
“ Here you’ve been wore out with tiredness and 
excitement and I keep you up till all hours 
pressin’ you with questions that you ain’t fit to 
answer, just as if we wouldn’t have time an’ to 
spare together for the rest of our lives, please 
Heaven ! Now go to bed, dearie, so you’ll be 
all rested and fresh in the morning.” 

Miss Blake shook her head. “ No, not all 
the rest of our lives together, Delia,” she cried, 
hurriedly ; “ it can only be for a year at most. 
You said it would be a year, didn’t you ? Well, 
then, you know I could not stay after that.” 

“ Go to bed, dearie,” was Delia’s sole response. 
“ And may you sleep easy and have no dreams.” 


76 


MISS WILDFIRE 


She took her upstairs herself, just as if the 
governess had been a little girl; and was not 
satisfied until she had brushed out the masses 
of shining hair and woven them into a long, 
ruddy braid behind. Then she smoothed the 
pillow lovingly and with another hearty “ sleep 
well ” went down stairs to “ do up ” her dishes 
and get the house closed for the night. 

When she finally stole up to her own room 
through the pitchy halls she was glad to see that 
there was no light in the governess’ 'room and 
that all was darkness and silence within. 

“ Good ! She’s asleep by this time, the dear !” 
murmured the faithful soul, and was soon snor- 
ing peacefully herself, quite worn out with the 
excitement of the evening. 

But Miss Blake was not asleep. Her eyes 
stared widely into the darkness and her brain 
was spinning with all sorts of teasing thoughts. 
She listened to the ticking of her watch beneath 
her pillow — to the muffled chime of the tall 
clock in the room below — to the gentle rattle of 
plaster inside the walls where some hidden 
mouse was scuttling in search of a stolen sup- 
per, and tried to soothe herself into a doze but 
failed and tried and failed again. 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


77 


Suddenly she sat bolt upright in bed. The 
sound she heard now was a new one, and one 
that caused her flesh to tingle. It was the 
sound of a stealthy hand upon her door. The 
knob turned noiselessly, the hinges gave a faint 
whine, and there on the threshold stood a white- 
robed figure, ghastly and spectral in the pallid 
light that fell upon it from the cloud-freed moon 
outside. Miss Blake did not utter a sound and 
the apparition glided forward with slow, meas- 
ured steps until it stood beside her bed. Its 
eyes were staring and wide and fixed. 

“ It’s Nan !” thought Miss Blake, not daring 
to speak aloud. 

The apparition did not remove its gaze. 
Presently it sighed. Then it raised its head 
and spoke and its voice was weirdly low and 
mournful. 

“ Alas, alas !” it wailed. “ This is the worst 
thing that ever happened to me in all my life. 
My dear old home ! To think that anybody 
who isn’t wanted should come and push herself 
like this into my dear old home ! What does 
she know of the way I feel ? I can never tell 
her how I hate to have her here, for that would 
be unladylike. But oh, how I hate it ! No, I 


78 


MISS WILDFIRE 


must keep my lips closed and bear her perse- 
cution in silence.’’ 

Two white hands were raised and wrung in a 
way that was truly tragic. 

“ O father, father !” groaned the ghost, 
making wild grabs at its hair, “ come home from 
Bombay and save me from this awful woman. 
Turn her out of the house. Make her go back 
where she came from. Her hated form haunts 
me in my sleep and I dream all night of her as 
I see her in the daytime.” 

Miss Blake caught her breath in a struggling 
gasp of dread as to what would come next. 

“Tall and thin and lanky, with hair all 
dragged into that ugly little hard knob at the 
back of her head !” 

The ghost paused, and its uneasy hands 
clasped each other convulsively while it showed 
plainly that it was confused in its mind and 
struggling to grasp a thought it could not 
express. 

Miss Blake breathed a deep sigh of relief. She 
had really begun to suspect that it was a vision of 
herself that was haunting Nan in her nightmare. 
Of course now she knew better. For surely 
she was not “ tall and lanky,” and her hair was 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


79 


certainly not “ dragged into an ugly little knob 
at the back of her head.” How grateful she 
was it had not proved to be herself. 

“ O father ! her eyes are like needles.” 

Miss Blake could have shouted for joy. But 
who could this awful bugbear be ? 

“ They prick me when she looks ! Save me ! 
Save me ! my heart will break if some one 
doesn’t come and rescue me from this terrible 
person. Take her away ! She’s coming at me 
with her needly eyes ! Daddy ! Daddy !” 

The uneasy spirit rocked backward and 
forward in the intensity of its emotion. It 
stretched out its arms and wagged a threatening 
forefinger, while it mumbled some unintelligible 
warning in a voice that faltered and wavered, 
and then frayed off to a mere wheeze that 
sounded suspiciously like a snore. 

Miss Blake would have risen if she had 
dared, but she dreaded the effect even the 
slightest shock might have upon Nan, in what 
she never doubted was a somnambulistic trance. 
But when the white-robed figure turned slowly 
about and retraced its steps to the threshold, 
she started up and noiselessly followed after to 
make sure that the girl arrived safely in her 


80 


MISS WILDFIRE 


own bed and showed no sign of further wander- 
ing that night. 

Never was a passage from room to room 
made more deliberately, and when the bed was 
reached the phantom scrambled into it, dragged 
the blankets closely about her shoulders and with 
a sigh of satisfaction settled herself to slumber. 

The governess crept back to her own room, 
thoroughly chilled and shivering with nervous- 
ness. It was an hour or more before she felt 
herself growing drowsy, but at last she dropped 
asleep and slept heavily until long past the 
usual rising hour. 

Nan waked at her accustomed time, feeling 
tired and irritable. She found Delia in the 
kitchen, preparing a tempting breakfast with 
more than her habitual care. 

“ Huh !” grunted the girl. “ We have hot 
muffins every morning, don’t we? And grid- 
dle-cakes ! and eggs, and scallops, and fried 
potatoes, too ! Oh, no ! we’re not making any 
fuss for the governess. Oh, no ! none at all ! 
If I were you I’d be ashamed of myself, Delia 
Connor !” 

Delia pursed her lips together and made no 
retort. 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


81 


It did not improve Nan’s temper to have to 
wait for her breakfast until Miss Blake should 
appear. But Delia made no attempt to serve 
her, and she was too proud to ask. Hajipily 
the delay was not too serious, and the governess 
aj3peared at the dining-room door just in time 
to prevent the muffins from falling and Nan’s 
temper from rising. 

“ Good morning !” said the cheery voice. 

“ — morning !” snapped Nan. 

“ I overslept,” continued the governess apolo- 
getically ; “ and I am thoroughly ashamed of 
myself. I beg your pardon. But I was very 
tired. I did not sleep over-well the first part 
of the night.” 

“ You’re not late — or — or anything,” said 
Nan. “I never get up till I feel like it.” 

Miss Blake made no comment. 

“ And how did you sleep ?” she asked after 
a moment, her eyes laughing mischievously as 
though in spite of her, while her face remained 
quite sober. 

“ All right,” responded Nan, uncommuni- 
catively. 

“ No dreams ?” 

The girl shook her head non-committally. 

6 


82 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“Now, I wonder whether I could tell you 
your dream,” ventured the governess, the light 
fading a little in her eyes. 

Nan did not encourage her to try. 

“ You were being pursued by some awful 
creature — oh, quite a gorgon, I should say !” 

The girl lifted her head. 

“ This relentless creature was deaf to all your 
appeals, though you appealed to her touchingly, 
something after this style : Alas, Alas ! this is 
the worst thing that ever happened to me in all 
my—” 

“Stop!” cried Nan, suddenly, with blazing 
eyes, “ I didn’t ! I didn’t ! Delia listened. She 
told on me. You’re making fun of me, and 
you’re both of you just as mean as you can be, 
so there !” 

She started up from her chair, which she 
thrust behind her so roughly that it fell to the 
ground with a hang, and rushed toward the door 
in a fury of anger and mortification. 

Miss Blake sprang from her place and tried 
to detain her, crying : 

“ Nan, Nan ! What do you mean ? I was 
only in sport ! Come back, dear, and let me tell 
you all about it.” But the girl fled past her, 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


83 


flinging her hand passionately away and spurn- 
ing her attempt at explanation. A moment 
later the street door flung to with a loud slam. 

The quick tears sprang to the governess’ eyes, 
but she crushed them back. 

“ Don’t mind her, dearie,” said Delia, con- 
solingly, but with an effort and a sigh. “She 
ain’t always like this. She’s sorter upset just 
now. She don’t mean any harm, and she’ll be 
sorry enough for what she’s done come lunch- 
time. Now, you see.” 

“ But I don’t understand,” Miss Blake cried. 
“ She said you listened and that you told me, 
and that we were both making fun of her. She 
thinks we are in league against her. What can 
she mean ? Why, I was only repeating some 
nonsense she said in her sleep last night, and 
I thought she would be amused to hear an ac- 
count of it. She came into my room and orated 
in the most tragic fashion. What does she 
mean by saying you listened and told me ?” 

Delia shook her head. What she privately 
thought on the subject she would not have told 
Miss Blake for worlds. 

“ If you take my advice,” she ventured, “ you 
won’t mind what Nan says. She’s quick as a 


84 


MISS WILDFIRE 


flash, but she’s got a good, big heart of her 
own, and it’s in the right place, too. Just let 
her be.” 

“ Let her be ?” interrupted Miss Blake, 
hastily, “ not if this is the way she is going to 
be. That is not what I am here for. I am here 
to educate her, Delia, and I intend to do it.” 

Delia could see that she meant what she said. 
There was a determined expression about her 
mouth that would have surprised Nan if she 
had seen it. But at noon, when she returned, 
the governess’ face was as placid as ever. She 
and Delia were discussing the price of butter in 
the most intimate fashion possible, and Nan 
snorted audibly as she heard them agree that it 
was ruinously high. 

Delia had played a poor enough part before, 
“ kow-towing ” to the enemy the first thing, but 
now she had deliberately betrayed her — Nan. 
Had “ gone back on her ” in the most flagrant 
fashion. It was the meanest thing she had ever 
heard of and she’d pay Delia back, you see if 
she wouldn’t! To listen at key-holes and then 
go and tell-tale ! 

“ Have you had a pleasant morning?” Miss 
Blake asked, affably, as Nan entered the room. 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


85 


She got a grudging affirmative, but nothing 
daunted she continued : “ It is so cold now there 
ought to be good skating. Perhaps you and I 
can take a spin some day. Do you skate ?” 

Again Nan answered “Yes,” but this time 
there was a gleam of interest in her tone. 

“ When my trunk comes I must show you my 
skates. I think them particularly fine : alto- 
gether too fine for one who skates as indiffer- 
ently well as I do. I am sure you will prove a 
much better skater than I am. Somehow I 
fancy you are very proficient.” 

“ I like to skate, and I guess I can do it 
pretty well. My father taught me — to do fig- 
ures and things. I don’t know any one who 
can skate as well as my father !” said Nan, with 
pardonable pride. 

“ I used to skate a great deal when I lived in 
Holland,” Miss Blake observed. “ There every 
one is so expert that I used to feel like a great 
bungler. Seeing others do so beautifully made 
me feel as though I were particularly awkward, 
and I really did keep in the background be- 
cause I was so ashamed of my clumsy perform- 
ances. Perhaps though, that was only an ex- 
cuse for my not being able to do better, and one 


86 


MISS WILDFIRE 


ought not to offer excuses, ought one ? Is there 
any pond near here on which we might skate ?” 

Nan*s eyes gleamed. 

“Why, yes,” she said. “We could go to the 
Park, or if you didn’t want to go there, there’s 
a sort of a pond they call the ‘ Steamer,’ quite 
near here. Lots of people skate on it, and it’s 
lovely fun. And there’s a place the other side 
of the Boulevard, where you can coast beauti- 
fully. It’s a jolly hill. We take our bobs 
there, and — the boys and me — and — ” 

“ I,” suggested Miss Blake, casually — “ the 
boys and I.” 

Nan blinked her eyes. The correction, how- 
ever, passed by unresented. 

“ The folks here think it isn’t nice for me to 
bob, and — and things. They think it’s rough !” 

“ Perhaps,” ventured Miss Blake, “ that may 
be because they have seen it done in a rough 
way, or by rough persons. You know a great 
deal depends upon how you do a thing.” 

Again Nan blinked her eyes. She was think- 
ing as she had the night before : 

“Pooh! I can manage her,” while Miss 
Blake, quite unconscious of what was going on 
in her pupil’s mind, continued : “ I think if the 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


87 


weather holds, we may have some very good 
sport, you and I. Don’t you think so ? And 
now run upstairs and smooth your hair and 
wash your hands, for Delia will have luncheon 
ready very shortly, and one must make one’s 
self tidy for meals, you know.” 

And then a very singular thing occurred. 
Nan found herself on the stairs in obedience to 
the governess’ command almost before she was 
aware, and she proceeded to make herself tidy, 
with no thought of refusal at all. 

But at luncheon came the first tug-of-war. 

Nan was about to repeat her performance of 
the morning, namely, to push her chair aside 
when she had finished eating and unceremo- 
niously leave the table. 

“ Oh, pardon me !” interposed Miss Blake, 
quickly. “ Please remain at the table ! You 
were excused at breakfast, but I am sure there 
is no necessity for your running away again. 
We must pay each other the respect to remain 
seated until we have both finished eating. 
You see, I am still drinking my tea, and you 
must allow me another of Delia’s delicious 
cookies.” 

It was all said very gently, but Nan recog- 


88 


MISS WILDFIRE 


nized beneath all the kind suggestion an unmis- 
takable tone of command. 

She thrust her chair back still further. 

“ I don’t want to wait !” she answered, dryly. 
“ I hate sitting at the table after I’m through. 
You can eat all the cookies you like, only I 
don’t want to wait.” 

“ Ah, but, my dear, I want you to wait,” 
Miss Blake said. “ I demand of you no more 
than I myself am willing to do. We must be 
courteous fco each other, and if you had not 
finished eating I should most certainly remain 
until you had. I expect you to do no less for 
me.” 

“Well, I can’t help it! I don’t want to stay 
and I — I won’t !” declared Nan, with a sudden 
burst of defiance. 

“ Very well,” returned Miss Blake, calmly. 
“ Of course, you are too old to be forced to act 
in a ladylike manner if you do not desire to do 
so. But, equally, I am too old to be treated with 
discourtesy and disrespect. If you are willing 
to behave in a rude manner and bear the re- 
proach that you will deserve, why, well and 
good — or, rather, ill and bad ! But I cannot sit 
at table with any but gentle mannered people. 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


89 


Unless you wish to behave as becomes a lady, 
we must take our meals apart.” 

There was no smile now on the governess , face. 
Nan suddenly got the impression that perhaps 
it would not he quite “ as easy as pie ” to “ man- 
age” Miss Blake. It seemed to the girl that 
for the first time in her life she had encountered 
determination outside of her own. It chal- 
lenged her from every line in the governess , 
little figure. For a moment she hesitated before 
it. Then, gathering herself together and sum- 
moning her dumb demon, she gave her shoulders 
a sullen shrug and left the room without a word. 

Miss Blake finished her luncheon as though 
nothing had happened. Then she rose, and, 
going into the kitchen, said a few words to 
Delia — words that caused the good woman to 
blink hard for a second and then exclaimed : 

“Yes'm. I will. It hurts me to cross the 
child, but I s'pose it is best. You have a brave 
spirit to set yourself against Nan. I wouldn't 
have the streiTth, let alone the will. But I 
s'pose you know what you can do.” 

“ Oh, yes, Delia,” replied the governess, with 
conviction. “ I know very well what I can do, 
but I shouldn't know if I did not have you to 


90 


MISS WILDFIRE 


help me. We’re both conspiring for Nan’s good, 
and we have to work together.” 

The rest of the afternoon Miss Blake spent 
in unpacking her trunk and in disposing of its 
contents. Beside the trunk there was a cumber- 
some case, a hamper, and a large crate such as 
is used for the shipment of bicycles. Delia 
gazed at it in wonderment. Did the governess 
use a wheel ? If so, what would Mrs. Newton 
say ? Delia trembled at the thought, and eyed 
the box with especial interest as it was being 
carried down stairs and deposited in the base- 
ment hall closet. 

Nan wandered in about twilight and found 
the house cheerfully lighted and warm and 
comfortable. There was a fire in the library 
grate, and she threw herself into a chair before 
it and lounged there luxuriously, while above 
her head the new governess was tripping to and 
fro, “ putting her room to rights,” Nan sus- 
pected. She wondered about that room. She 
would have liked to go up there and see if those 
skates had arrived, but of course she could not 
do that. The governess must not think she 
cared to see her when she wasn’t forced to. No, 
indeed ! 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


91 


Later Miss Blake came down stairs, and 
drawing lier chair nearer the lamp, commenced 
to sew. Presently up came Delia. 

“ Miss Blake,” she said, with an emphasis 
Nan noticed and did not like, “your dinner is 
served.” 

Nan jumped up with an exaggerated yawn. 
Her hair was rough and disordered, her frock 
was rumpled and untidy, her hands were obvi- 
ously soiled. Miss Blake remarked on none of 
these things. She laid her bit of needle-work 
upon the table and quietly j^assed down stairs 
before Nan. 

The table was set for one, and the governess 
seated herself before the solitary place. 

Nan stood at the side of the table in stiff and 
silent amazement. 

“ Where’s my place, Delia ?” she called, 
ignoring Miss Blake, except for an angry flash 
of her eyes. 

But Miss Blake was not to be ignored. 

“ I thought you had decided to dine alone,” 
she said. “At least, that was the impression 
you conveyed to me at luncheon. If you have 
changed your mind, Delia can easily set your 
place. Shall she do so ?” 


92 


MISS WILDFIKF 


The question was simple, but Nan knew what 
it involved. She was speechless with rage. Her 
face alternately flushed and paled, while her lips 
twitched spasmodically 

“ I — I — hate you !” she cried at last, with 
breathless vehemence. “ You’ve no right here. 
When my father comes he’ll send you right 
away. You see if he don’t!” 

She flung herself in a paroxysm of anger out 
of the room. 

Miss Blake ate her dinner, it is true, but per- 
haps it was scarcely strange that her relish of it 
was not great. Every mouthful seemed to choke 
her. Delia saw her hand tremble as she raised 
her tumbler of water to her lips. 

“ This’ll make you sick, dearie, this striving 
with Nan. She’ll never give in ! Her will is 
that strong.” 

But the governess shook her head. 

Nan ate no dinner that night, and the next 
day she slept late ; that is, she remained in bed 
late. Lying there cross and unhappy, she 
heard sounds of voices in Miss Blake’s room. 
Occasionally there were other sounds as well ; 
sounds of hammering and the moving of fur- 
niture across the floor. 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


93 


When Nan was “ good and ready ” she rose 
and strolled down stairs with an air of non- 
chalance that was for Miss Blake’s benefit, 
should she chance to see. 

She found the dining-room in perfect order 
and the kitchen deserted. No breakfast, hot 
and tempting, awaited her as of old. Delia was 
evidently upstairs, and Nan was too stubborn 
to call her down. She prowled about the closets 
and cupboards until she discovered some cold 
oatmeal, a bit of meat also cold, and a slice of 
bread. These, with a cup of chilling milk, she 
gulped down hastily and with a thorough dis- 
relish. 

“Ugh !” she exclaimed, “ how I hate it — and 
her !” 

It was a cheerless morning. The tempera- 
ture had risen and a thick rain was falling. 
There was nothing to do out-of-doors so Nan re- 
mained within. It was Friday, and one of 
Delia’s sweeping days. She was shut up in the 
draughty parlor with a mob-cap on her head 
“cleaning for dear life,” as she expressed it. 
After a brief experience of the cold and dis- 
comfort of open windows and clouds of dust, Nan 
gave up trying to talk to Delia and wandered 


94 


MISS WILDFIRE 


out of the parlor as disconsolately as she had 
wandered into it. By and by she heard Miss 
Blake’s door open and close and saw the 
governess come forth, leave the house, and walk 
rapidly down the street. She turned in at the 
Newton’s gate and disappeared behind the vesti- 
bule door. Nan had flown to the window to 
gaze after her. 

“ Whatever can she want there,” wondered 
the girl. 

The question bothered her. She had not 
been able to get direct news of Buth’s condition 
because she had not dared inquire again after 
the way she had been treated, but in a round- 
about manner she had heard that the child had 
a fever. 

“ What fever ?” she wondered. “ Do people 
die of fever ? If she dies will that be because I 
left her on the ground while I ran to get that 
milkman to help carry her home ?” 

Miss Blake was not gone long, but it was 
luncheon-time when she returned. 

“ Ah, good morning !” she said, pleasantly, to 
Nan, who happened to be in the hall. “ I have 
pleasant news for you. Your little friend Ruth 
Newton is better, and her mamma says she 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 


95 


would be grateful to you and me if we would 
come in once in a while and help her to amuse 
the £>oor child. Will you go with me to-mor- 
row ? Mrs. Newton said particularly that she 
hoped you would.” 

A curious expression flitted across Nan’s face. 

“ Mrs. Newton hates me,” she announced. 
“ She doesn’t want me to see Ruth.” 

Miss Blake drew off her gloves carefully. 

“ I have explained certain matters to Mrs. 
Newton, Nan,” she said, “ and she is quite satis- 
fied that she was partly mistaken in her judg- 
ment of you the other day. She says that she 
is willing to apologize for some of her accusa- 
tions, and she has written you a little note. 
Now, come, and we will both go down to 
luncheon. I see Delia is here - to tell us it is 
served.” 

“ She takes it for granted I’ll go,” thought 
Nan, and indeed she went quite willingly, and 
what was more, remained respectfully seated in 
her place until Miss Blake gave her permission 
to depart by rising herself. 


CHAPTER VI 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 

“ I think, Delia,” said the governess, as Nan 
was about to go upstairs, “ if you have an ax, 
or something of the sort, I’ll try to unbox my 
bicycle.” 

Nan came to an abrupt halt. Bicycle ! The 
word went through her with an electric thrill, 
and sent her blood tingling. Then she dragged 
herself unwillingly away. What had she to do 
with the bicycle of a woman she hated. 

“ O Nan !” Miss Blake exclaimed, before 
the girl’s lagging footsteps had carried her half- 
way up the staircase, “ I’m sure your strong 
young arms can help us with this big elephant. 
Will you lend a hand ?” 

Now could the governess have suspected that 
that was precisely what Nan had been longing 
to do? But she could not have lingered unless 
she had been given the excuse by Miss Blake 
herself. Had the request been made to serve as 
that excuse ? 

96 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


97 


Nan did not stop to question. She came 
flinging down stairs, two steps at a time, and 
Miss Blake and Delia smiled above her head as 
she bent down, wrenching and tugging with her 
main strength at the boards and stubborn nails, 
too excited to know that half the force she used 
would have served her better. 

“ There ! that's my bicycle !” announced Miss 
Blake, displaying the beautiful machine with 
the pride of a possessor, when the last stay had 
been unscrewed, and the slender wheel stood 
revealed in all the glory of its spotless nickel- 
plate and rubber tires. 

Nan gazed at it in speechless admiration. It 
had been the dream of her life to own such a 
machine, but she had pleaded for one in vain. 
Mr. Turner had explained to her that what 
money he held in trust for her was no more than 
served to pay for her running expenses. 

“ You know your father is not a rich man," 
he had said, “ and lately he has met with losses. 
He wishes you to be brought up under home in- 
fluences rather than at a boarding-school among 
strangers. He desires you to be well educated, 
and naturally all this costs. Your father is 
willing to make many sacrifices that you may be 
7 


98 


MISS WILDFIRE 


well provided for, but he is not able to indulge 
you in a matter like this of the bicycle. I wish 
I did not have to refuse you, but I think with 
him, that your most important need should be 
supplied first, and if after that little remains for 
mere indulgence, you must be satisfied. By 
and by you will see that his course is best, if 
you do not see it already.” 

But Nan had never been able to feel that it 
was best that she should not have a bicycle. 
Now that the new governess had come and had 
proved so “ horrid,” she felt it still less. “ Half 
the money she gets would buy me a first-rate 
safety,” she had thought often and often and 
often, as she groaned over her father’s per- 
versity. 

But here was one of the wonderful affairs 
actually in the house, and if it did not belong to 
her, what of that ? What was it the governess 
was just saying ? 

“ I am quite sure you could use this wheel if 
we should shift the saddle up a bit, that is, if you 
care to ride. As soon as the ground is clear I 
will teach you if you like.” 

Nan’s face was radiant. “ Oh, I know how,” 
she said. “ I’ve practiced lots on — on — a per- 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


99 


son’s I know. Only it wasn’t a — a — girl’s wheel. 
But I can ride.” 

Miss Blake was rubbing down the slender 
spokes with a piece of chamois skin. 

“ You are welcome to use mine, then,” she said 
simply. 

Nan choked out a meagre “ Thank you.” It 
was not a gracious acknowledgment, but the 
governess accej3ted it, and really felt a glow of 
satisfaction in having called out even so much 
as an acceptance of her favor from her arbitrary 
young charge. 

“ Small favors thankfully received,” she 
thought with a smile at her own humility. 

Nan stood leaning against the wall with her 
hands behind her, watching the manoeuvres of 
the leathern rag as it flashed up and down the 
nickel spokes and around and about the hubs, 
guided by the dexterous hand of the little gov- 
erness. 

“ Yes, I think we can pass many a jolly hour 
on this machine,” resumed Miss Blake, “after 
the ground is clear of snow, and after we are 
clear of our lessons. We’ll begin our studies 
on Monday, Nan. That will be commencing 
with the new week, and we must be very con- 


100 


MISS WILDFIRE 


scientious about our work before we indulge in 
any play/’ 

“ There !” thought Nan, with a rush of antag- 
onism, “ I might have known she’d make some 
kind of a fuss before she’d let me use it. I guess 
she’s sorry she promised in the first place, and 
wants to kind of back out of it. Oh, well, I 
might have known. Now she’ll pile on lessons 
and things till there’s no time for anything else. 
That’s her way of getting out of it.” 

But she made no comment. She stood kick- 
ing her heel against the surbase, silently watch- 
ing the sparkling machine. Presently she 
turned and stalked upstairs without a word. 

Delia gave Miss Blake an apologetic glance, 
but the governess composedly rose, and, stowing 
her property safely away against the closet wall, 
closed the door upon it and with a kind word to 
the woman beside her went upstairs as though 
nothing had happened. 

She knew what was in Nan’s mind. She 
could read it as distinctly as if the sudden 
wrinkles on her forehead and the quick set of 
her obstinate jaw had been printed text. 

“ Poor child !” thought the governess, “ how 
she hates study and — me, How she rebels 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


101 


against restraint. So she thinks I am trying 
to take back my word. No wonder that makes 
her furious.” 

She went into her room and closed the door, 
but after a moment she came back and opened 
it again. 

“ Nan might feel shut out,” she said to her- 
self, and so she left it standing invitingly ajar 
that in case the girl cared to come in she would 
not have to knock. She smiled to herself as she 
did it. She knew well enough Nan would not 
care to come in. “ Still there might be a chance !” 
— she left the door open on the chance. 

The more Nan thought of Delia’s baseness the 
more she inwardly raged against it. She sat in 
her own room with her feet over the register 
and munched caramels and nursed her grievance 
all the afternoon. Delia was miserable. She 
had tried by every means in her power to win 
at least a look from the girl, but all her attempts 
were repelled and she was treated with an over- 
bearance that cut her to the quick. At last she 
could stand it no longer. She left her work and 
went upstairs “ to have it out with Nan ” and 
be done with it. 

She knocked repeatedly at her bedroom door, 


102 


MISS WILDFIRE 


but the girl obstinately refused to utter the word 
of admittance. Delia was not to be daunted, 
however, by this, and at last, turning the knob,' 
she walked boldly in and confronted Nan 
squarely. 

“ See here, Nan,” she began without waiting, 
“ I want to know what’s the matter with you 
that you treat me so ? Me that has waited on 
you hand and foot and tended you night and 
day since you was a little baby ?” 

The girl did not deign to raise her eyes from 
her book — or else they were so rapidly filling 
with tears that she did not dare to do so. 

Delia gulped. “ Can’t you answer a civil 
question ?” she faltered, trying to be firm and 
failing utterly. 

Nan cast her book to the floor and sprang up 
to face the woman with blazing cheeks and eyes 
that flashed angry fire. 

“ You’d better ask me what’s the matter, 
Delia Connor !” she burst out in a trembling 
voice. “As if you didn’t know ! Do you 
s’pose I’ll bear everything? It’s bad enough 
—your being such an awful turn-coat! You 
went over' to her side the first thing, and every 
time she bosses me you just stand there and let 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


103 


her do it and never say a word. You let her 
order me about like everything and never stand 
up for me a bit. Her — a perfect stranger ! 
Somebody you never saw in all your life before ! 
But that isn’t the worst of it ! Do you s’pose 
I’m going to stand your coming to my door and 
listening at the key-hole when I was rehearsing 
and then going and telling on me — telling her 
all I was going to do to her, I’d like to know ? 
You just wanted to get on the right side of her, 
and it was the meanest thing I ever heard of in 
all my life. You came and peeked at me when 
I was rehearsing and then went and told her, 
and I s’pose you both laughed and had a fine 
time over it. You thought you were very smart, 
didn’t you ? But you got there too soon, Delia 
Connor, for I had made up my mind I wouldn’t 
do it, so there ! But now you’ve both been so 
mean, I don’t care who knows what I was going 
to do. I hope you told her that I don’t want 
her here. I hope you told her every bit of that 
thing I learned by heart on purpose to recite to 
her. I hope you repeated every word of it. 
It’s true and I hope she knows it. I hope — ” 

“ For the land’s sake, Nan, do be still,” broke 
out Delia at last after a dozen futile attempts to 


104 


MISS WILDFIRE 


stem the tide of the girl’s anger. “ I didn’t 
listen nor peek nor anything, and you scream so 
loud she’ll hear every word you say. You — 
now be quiet and let me speak — you walked in 
your sleep last night. You went into her room 
and said off a whole lot of balderdash to her — 
enough to set her against you for the rest of her 
life — if she ever finds out you really meant it.” 

Nan gave Delia an imploring, frightened 
look. 

“ Delia,” she gasped, breathlessly, “ do you — 
do you think she heard ?” 

Delia shook her head. 

“ Couldn’t say for the life of me,” she replied. 
“ Her door may have been open when I came 
up ; I didn’t notice.” 

Nan looked the picture of dismay. “ Wait a 
minute ! — I’ll go see !” she whispered earnestly, 
and tip-toed noiselessly into the hall. A second 
later she returned, radiant with reassurance. 

“ Her door is tight shut, and she’s making so 
much noise inside her room she couldn’t possi- 
bly have heard. Sounds as if she was dragging 
trunks around or something.” 

“ Perhaps she’s packing to go ’way,” suggested 
Delia, with a grain of malice. 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


105 


Nan fairly jumped with — well, if it wasn’t 
joy it was something equally as moving in its 
way. “ Oh, no, no !” she cried, in a sudden 
fever of excitement. “ I don’t want her to 
leave — like that. Just think how awful it 
would be to have her leave — like that ! Can’t 
you go to her and say I’m — you’re good friends 
with her. Delia, won’t you please go and tell 
her I didn’t really mean to say off that speech 
at her. I learned it before she came, and I 
meant to recite it, hut when I found that she 
was different — so little and kind of — different, I 
thought it would be mean to do it, and I gave 
it up. Do go and tell her, Delia, please, and 
oh, won’t you hurry ?” 

“ Now see here, Nan,” interposed the woman. 
“ Our best plan is to wait and see what she is 
going to do. If she hasn’t heard, it’s all right, 
and telling her would only put the fat in the 
fire. On the other hand, if she has heard and 
is packing up to go ’way, why, it wouldn’t do 
much good, I’m afraid, to try to stop her. With 
all being such a lady and so gentle in her ways, 
she’s got a mind of her own — I can see that — 
and you won’t be like to get her to change it. 
But she’ll tell you good-bye before she leaves, 


106 


MISS WILDFIRE 


she’s too much of a lady not to, no matter how 
she feels, and then you can say your say, and 
I promise you faithful I’ll back you up.” 

Nan saw the wisdom of Delia’s counsel, and 
tried to content herself to wait. But the sus- 
pense of every minute was awful, and she felt 
herself growing frenzied under the strain. After 
a time the commotion in the next room ceased, 
and all was quiet as the grave. “ She’s getting 
on her hat now,” gasped Nan. “ She’ll go away 
and think I’m a heathen and all sorts of horrid 
things. And she hasn’t got any friends or folks 
of her own, and no house to go to but this. And 
I s’pose she’s awfully poor, because she wouldn’t 
be a governess if she wasn’t, and oh, dear! I 
don’t want to have any one be a beggar, and 
turned out of the only roof they’ve got over 
their heads on my account. That’s what makes 
me feel so bad, Delia. That’s the only thing. 
If she will go on her own account I’ll — I’ll be 
glad, but — oh, she mustn’t go this way !” 

Delia turned away her face to hide a smile. 

“ There’s nothing to do but wait,” she insisted. 
“ If I go in there and tell her, and she hasn’t 
heard, why it would only give you away ; don’t 
you see ?” 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


107 


Nan let herself down in her rocking-chair 
with a dismal drop. “ O dear !” she cried, “ I 
never saw anything like it ! The way things 
go wrong in this house! It’s just perfectly 
horrid ! I wish I was with my father, I do so ! 
I guess it’s nicer in India than it is here, any- 
way ; and I’m sick and tired of living cooped up 
in this old stuffy place. So there !” 

Delia dusted some imaginary dust off the 
table with the corner of her apron, and went 
down stairs to finish up her work. 

In the street below the huckster was yelling 
“Chestnuts! Fresh-roasted chestnuts !” The 
little charcoal oven in his push-cart sent out a 
shrill, continuous whistle, and Nan had an im- 
pulse to throw something at him. What busi- 
ness had he to come here and make such a 
racket that she couldn’t hear what was going on 
in the next room. He passed slowly down the 
street, his call and the whistle of his oven 
growing fainter and fainter, and finally fading 
quite away as he disappeared in the distance. 
Nan pricked up her ears. Surely the sounds 
she heard were those of moving feet in the next 
room. Back and forth they went, now nearer, 
that was to the closet, now further away again, 


108 


MISS WILDFIRE 


that must be to the bureau. What could the 
governess be doing? The lid of her trunk was 
dropped, and Nan could distinctly hear the click 
of the catches as they fell in place. There was 
no further doubt about it! Miss Blake was 
going. A moment later, and before Nan could 
collect her wits, the door of the next room was 
briskly opened and closed, and the governess, 
hatted and cloaked, sped quickly from the house. 

Nan flew to the balusters with a hasty cry 
upon her lips, but was just in time to see the 
door swing heavily to ; and that was all. She 
flung herself down stairs two steps at a time. 

“ There now, Delia Connor,” she cried, burst- 
ing into the kitchen with such vehemence that 
the very tins rattled on their shelves. “ There, 
now ! What did I tell you ? She’s gone — 
Miss Blake’s gone. Trunks packed — ! Every- 
thing’s packed ! She’ll send men to get them. 
She’s gone clean off. I told you what it would 
be, and you wouldn’t go and speak to her. And 
now my father will be disgraced, and Mr. 
Turner will blame me, and — it’s all your fault, 
and I’ll tell my father ; so there !” 

Delia’s face paled suddenly. She set her lips 
together tight. 



“ THERE NOW, DELIA CONNOR, MISS BLAKE’S GONE 

(Page 108.) 
















































*- 





-• 





































WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


109 


“ It’s well you have some one to lay the blame 
on, child !” she said shortly, and went upstairs 
without another word. Nan did not care to fol- 
low her into the governess’ room, but stood out- 
side and waited to hear her verdict when she 
should have examined the premises. 

“ Well ?” asked the girl, eagerly, as soon as 
she came out. 

“Her trunk’s shut and locked, that’s cer- 
tain !” 

“ Then she’s gone for good !” 

“ She’s gone. There ain’t a doubt about 
that!” 

“You said she would surely say good-bye, 
Delia Connor, you know you did. You said no 
matter how she felt, she was such a lady she’d 
be certain to say good-bye !” 

“Well, and I really thought so. I believe 
now she’d have said good-bye, if — ” 

“ If I hadn’t been such a — brat ? Say it right 
out, Delia ! You mean it and you might as well 
say what you think,” broke in the girl bitterly. 

Delia turned on her heel and stalked grimly 
down stairs. A second later she heard a rush 
of flying feet behind her, and the next moment 
two arms were locked about her neck. 


110 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“Poor old Delia,” cried Nan, in one of- her 
sudden bursts of remorse. “ I’m the horridest 
girl that ever lived ! I know it as well as you 
do, and if you weren’t the patientest thing in 
the world you wouldn’t stand it for a minute. 
But don’t you go away from me too, Delia! 
Please don’t! Honest Injun, I’ll try to behave! 
Cross my heart I will. And I tell you this 
much, I feel just awfully about Miss Blake. I 
shouldn’t wonder a bit but it would snow to- 
night, and she hasn’t a place to go and no 
money, and — O dear ! I feel like a person 
that ought to be in jail !” 

Delia extricated herself gently from the 
clinging arms. “ What makes you think Miss 
Blake’s as poverty-stricken as that?” she asked. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” responded the girl. 
“ But I just feel she is. And she is so little too. 
She looked so glad to get into this house that I 
guess she never had much of a place to stay 
before.” 

“ She don’t dress like a person that’s next- 
door to a beggar,” mused Delia. 

“ No, she doesn’t. She has really pretty 
things, hasn’t she ? But I guess they’re made 
over and cast-off, or something. Maybe the 


WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS 


111 


lady she lived with last gave them to her?” 
speculated Nan. 

“ Maybe she did,” said Delia. 

The two made their way slowly down to the 
kitchen. It was beginning to grow dark and 
the dinner must be prepared. 

“ I never in all my life saw such little hands 
and feet,” the girl pursued. “And she’s dread- 
fully particular about them. There’s never a 
speck on her fingers that she doesn’t run right 
up and scrub them, and she wears the cunning- 
est slippers I ever saw.” 

“ I guess she comes of nice folks,” said Delia, 
as she began to peel the potatoes. 

“Wonder why she doesn’t stay with them 
then ?” put in Nan. 

“ Perhaps they’re dead.” 

Nan pondered. Her own motherless life had 
given her a very tender sympathy for those 
whose “ folks ” were dead. For the first time 
she felt sorry for Miss Blake. She was uneasy 
and distressed. It made her shift about uncom- 
fortably in her chair. 

“ Goodness me !” she ejaculated impatiently 
at last, and then one of her wild impulses 
took possession of her and she ran frantically 


112 


MISS WILDFIRE 


up into her own room and flung on her coat and 
hat. 

“The whole thing’s as plain as preaching. 
Why didn’t I think of it before ?” she said to 
herself, with a shake of impatience. “ Mr. 
Turner told Miss Blake if she was worried or 
anything to go to him. She hasn’t any money, 
and she’s left here, so of course that’s where she 
is. I’ll go and bring her back.” 

The front door opened and shut with a bang, 
and Nan was out in the street alone. As she 
scudded down the pavement the electric lights 
suddenly gleamed out pale and vivid from their 
lofty globes, and sent wavering shadows flashing 
across her path. 

“ It’s pretty late and it’ll be dark as a pocket 
in a little while,” thought she ; but that did not 
detain her, and she raced on, putting block after 
block between her and home in her ardor to 
make reparation and to lighten her heart of its 
weight of compunction. 


CHAPTEK VII 


OPEN CONFESSION 

Nan knew the way to Mr. Turner’s house 
perfectly, though she had not been able to give 
Mrs. Newton the street and number.. She was 
observing and clear-headed, and could have 
been trusted to find her way about the entire 
city alone, but her father had often cautioned 
Delia and the girl herself against jDutting her 
power to the test, and so it happened that until 
now she had never been any considerable dis- 
tance away from home after twilight without a 
companion. The way was perfectly familiar to 
her — but it had never seemed so interminably 
long. She could have taken a car, but in her 
haste to get off she had forgotten her pocket- 
book. She saw the “ trolleys ” fly past her in 
quick succession, and it seemed to her they 
whizzed jeeringly at her as they sped. She was 
by nature so fearless that even if the street had 
not been thronged she would not have been 
afraid. As it was she was only alarmed lest she 
8 113 


114 


MISS WILDFIRE 


would get to Mr. Turner’s and find Miss Blake 
gone. 

She hurried on breathlessly, fairly skipping 
with impatience and wondering what explana- 
tion she could give the lawyer in case the gov- 
erness had not told him the real reason of her 
departure. Somehow it flashed into Nan’s 
mind that Miss Blake would not expose her. 
She was .busied with this reflection as she 
turned off the broad, well-lighted thoroughfare 
into the dimmer side-street upon which Mr. 
Turner lived, and she ran up the steps of his 
house with the question still unsettled. It was 
not a moment before the door was opened to her 
and she was admitted to the warm, luxuriously 
furnished drawing-room. It was Nan’s ideal of 
a house : “ all full of curtains and soft carpets 
and beautiful things.” She seated herself be- 
fore the burning log-fire with a sensation of 
deep well-being — only it was a little over- 
shadowed by her worry about the governess. 

“ Well, my little lady, and what brings you 
here at this time of day?” was Mr. Turner’s 
greeting, as he strode across the room to meet 
her. 

“ O Mr. Turner !” began Nan, bluntly, “ I 


OPEN CONFESSION 


115 


came to see you about Miss Blake. I want to 
know — I wonder if you — ” 

“ Indeed ! And how is that charming lady ? 
You must tell her I had hoped to see her before 
this, but I have been unusually busy, and every 
moment has been taken up. Now tell me, isn’t 
it as I said ? Hasn’t she completely won your 
heart? Aha ! I see she has ! I see she has !” 

Nan flushed and stammered, and did not re- 
ply. Inwardly, she was in a turmoil. Either 
Miss Blake had not come here at all or the 
lawyer was trying to baffle her. And if Miss 
Blake had not come here, then where was she? 
A sort of dumb terror took hold of the girl and 
shook her from head to foot. 

“ You see I was right,” pursued the lawyer, 
cheerfully. “ I knew you would surrender to 
her the first thing. Every one does. I think I 
never knew any one who was more universally 
loved. Now, how can I help you, my dear? 
Give you some extra pin-money to buy Miss 
Blake a Christmas present, eh? Is that it?” 

Nan caught at the suggestion eagerly as being 
a way out of her difficulty, and nodded a gulp- 
ing assent. 

“Well, you needn’t have traveled all this 


116 


MISS WILDFIRE 


distance for such a simple matter, my dear,” 
he assured her genially. “And after dark, too ! 
A note would have served, you know ; a note 
would have served. But I’m glad you like 
her so well, and you shall have the money at 
once. Your father would be delighted I am 
sure.” 

It was only after Nan had been gone some 
time that Mr. Turner remembered with a start 
that she was alone and that it was night. It 
was too late then to overtake her, so he had to 
resign himself with the thought that the girl 
was admirably self-reliant, and that her way 
lay almost entirely along well-lit and busy 
avenues. 

The thought of danger did not occupy Nan 
for a moment. Her only fear now was for the 
governess. If she wasn’t at Mr. Turner’s, then 
where was she? She asked herself this question 
over and over again. The girl blushed as she 
thought of the untruth she had been guilty of in 
implying that the lawyer’s suggestion had been 
her motive in coming to him. She sharpened 
her j>ace, as if to outstrip the memory of her 
misdeed, but it, with her other worry, seemed 
to pursue her, and presently her imagination so 


OPEN CONFESSION 


117 


quickened at the thought that she actually fan- 
cied she heard some one behind keeping step 
with her. She broke into a brisk run. Clap ! 
clap ! came the sound of hastening feet behind 
her. With a sort of tortured courage she slack- 
ened her pace. Whatever was following her 
also took a slower gait. She cast a furtive look 
over her shoulder and gave a horrified gasp as 
her eyes squarely encountered two other eyes, 
which were fixed upon her own in an insulting 
leer from beneath the rim of a rakish felt hat 
which was worn tilted on the side of a very un- 
prepossessing head. The eyes, bad as they were, 
proved the best feature in a thoroughly vicious 
face, and for the first time in her life Nan felt 
frightened — chokingly frightened. She would 
have rushed on, but a stealthy hand held her 
back. 

“ Don’t try to run away from me, little lady !” 
said an unsteady voice in her ear in a tone that 
was intended to seem engaging. “ Don’t try to 
run away from me, if you please. I wouldn’t 
hurt you for the world, no, indeed.” 

Nan shook herself free from the disgusting 
touch and hurried on without a word. Her hate- 
ful shadow kept abreast with her. 


118 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ You ain’t afraid of me, are you?” he asked 
reproachfully. 

Nan made no response. Her feet seemed to 
cling to the pavement. Every time she lifted 
one it was with an effort. 

“ Oh, come now,” whined the voice in her ear, 
“ don’t go on like this. I ain’t going to hurt 
you. I’m only a poor man who would he grate- 
ful for a penny or two. By the way, where’s 
your pocket-book?” 

Nan leaped suddenly aside, and as she did so 
she missed her footing, and a cry of pain burst 
from her lips. A sharp pang shot from her ankle 
to her knee, and when she tried to take another 
step she found the darting agony returned. But 
stop she could not. Her face grew gray and lined 
with misery as she dragged forward, saving her 
injured ankle as much as she could, hut always 
having to torture it intolerably with every on- 
ward limp. Her persecutor caught up with her 
promptly, and she cast beseeching looks for de- 
liverance on every side, which the hurrying, 
preoccupied crowd was too intent on its own 
affairs to see. If only she could see a policeman ! 
She knew what she would do. She would make 
believe she was going past him and then sud- 


OPEN CONFESSION 


119 


denly veer about and say, “ Officer, this man is 
annoying me !” and before he had time to realize 
what she had done the rowdy would be arrested. 
But no policeman was in sight, and her fine 
scheme could not be carried out. Suddenly in 
the midst of her agony of mind and body her 
heart gave a wild bound of unspeakable relief. 

“ Miss Blake ! Miss Blake !” she almost 
shrieked. 

“ Nan !” 

The little governess was beside her in a flash, 
her own face almost as white and seamed as the 
girl’s. 

“ O Miss Blake ! this man — make him go 
away ; make some one send him away. He’s 
annoying me — and my foot !” 

The governess grew if possible a shade paler. 
“ What man ?” she demanded sharply, “Where ?” 

Nan could not speak. She indicated with a 
mute gesture. Miss Blake looked* behind her, 
but if there had actually been such a man as the 
girl described he must certainly have taken to 
his heels. They were standing alone in the 
midst of the hurrying crowd. 

“ O Nan !” cried the governess, not stopping 
to argue the question, “ where have you been ? 


120 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Delia and I have been frantic with worry. She 
is out now hunting for you. She went one way 
and I another.” 

Nan could not reply. The torture in her 
ankle grew fiercer with every movement. She 
shook her head silently and limped on. 

“ You are hurt ! You are in pain !” cried 
Miss Blake, now for the first time really realizing 
her condition. 

Nan nodded dumbly. 

“ Take my arm ; no, lean on my shoulder ! 
There, that’s better ! Bear down as hard as you 
can and use me as your crutch ! I’m strong. 
I won’t give out.” 

And a right good support she jiroved. Haj> 
pily they were but a stone’s throw from home, 
and it was not long before Nan was comfortably 
settled on the library lounge, luxuriously sur- 
rounded by all sorts of downy cushions and 
having her injured ankle bound in soothing 
cloths by the tenderest of hands. Delia, full of 
sympathy and the desire to help, was bustling 
about nervously, tripping over bandages and 
upsetting bottles of liniment, but meaning so 
well all the while that one could not discourage 
her. 


OPEN CONFESSION 


121 


“It is only a strain. You have turned your 
ankle badly and the muscles have been wrenched, 
but I don’t think it is an actual sprain,” said 
Miss Blake, consolingly. “ However, if the 
pain is still bad to-morrow, we’ll have a doctor 
in to look at it. Do you still have Dr. Milbank, 
Delia ?” 

Nan sat bolt upright with surprise. 

“ How funny !” she cried. “ However in the 
world did you know Dr. Milbank was our 
doctor? Why, we’ve had him for years and 
years. Ever since I was born and before, too. 
But how could you know ?” 

Delia hurried out of the room muttering 
something about the dinner, and Miss Blake bent 
her head over the bandage she was rolling. 

“ He lives so near,” she replied haltingly. 
“ I’ve seen his sign often as I passed and — and — 
perhaps that is why I thought he might be your 
physician. He’s so convenient — within call. 
It is hard to tell what makes one jump at con- 
clusions sometimes.” 

Nan sank back among her cushions not half 
satisfied. “ Dr. Pardee lives near, too. Just as 
near as Dr. Milbank does,” she persisted. 

The governess made no response, and just 


122 


MISS WILDFIRE 


then Delia came staggering in under the weight 
of a huge brass tray which she bore in her arms. 

Miss Blake jumped to her feet. “We’re 
going to have a dinner-party up here to-night, 
Nan/’ she said. “Won’t it be fun?” and she 
set to work unfolding a strange foreign-looking 
stand that Nan had never seen before and upon 
which Delia carefully placed the tray. 

“ AVhy, what a dandy little table it makes !” 
exclaimed Nan, admiringly. “ Where did it 
come from?” 

“ I brought it from London, but it was made 
in India,” explained Miss Blake. 

Nan’s eyes softened. “ Where papa is !” 
she murmured softly to herself. “ You have 
lots of nice things,” she added, after a mo- 
ment. “ These pillows are downright daisies. 
I s’pose they belong to you.” 

The governess served her with soup. “ They 
are yours whenever you care to use them,” she 
returned in her quiet way. 

“ It’s jolly having dinner up here,” said Nan, 
not quite knowing how to respond to such a 
generous offer. 

“Yes, isn’t it?” assented the governess. 

“ Mrs. Newton don’t use her basement for a 


OPEN CONFESSION 


123 


dining-room, and neither does Mr. Turner. I 
wish we didn’t. I think it would be perfectly 
fine if we could have ours up here, too.” 

“ Why couldn’t you ?” 

The girl leaned forward with a look of real 
interest in her face. 

“Do you think we might?” she asked 
eagerly. 

“ I don’t see why not. The books might be 
shifted to the other room. This might be re — 
well, re-arranged, and I’m sure it would make a 
charming dining-room.” 

“ But that ugly old glass extension back 
there !” protested Nan in disgust. “ Who wants 
to look at a lot of old trunks and broken-up 
things when one is eating ? If we could only 
jduII it down.” 

Miss Blake considered a moment. 

“ Why not take all the old trunks and broken- 
up things out entirely and make a conservatory 
of it. It faces the south. Plants would grow 
beautifully there.” 

Nan clapped her hands. “ Why, that’s per- 
fectly splendiferous,” she cried. “ I never should 
have thought of it. I say, Miss Blake, let’s do 
it right away, will you ? I love flowers.” 


124 


MISS WILDFIRF 


“Would you take care of them?” demanded 
the governess with a thoughtful look. 

“ Uh-huh !” nodded Nan, heartily. “ I guess 
I would !” 

“Very well, then,” returned Miss Blake en- 
couragingly, “ I’ll think about it. “ Perhaps 
Delia wouldn’t consent. You know there is no 
dumb-waiter in the house, and if she had to 
carry up all the dishes at every meal, it would 
more than double her work.” 

Nan’s face fell. “ O dear !” she complained. 
“ What a horrid old house ! Can’t do a single 
thing with it ! It would have been such fun to 
change everything about !” 

Miss Blake laughed. “ Oh, if that was all 
your reason for wanting the improvements,” she 
retorted. “ I thought you wanted to gratify 
your sense of the beautiful.” 

“Well, I do,” declared Nan. 

“ Then we’ll see what can be done,” and the 
governess set down her glass of water with a 
very knowing smile. 

After dinner was eaten and Delia had carried 
away the tray and Miss Blake removed the 
wonderful folding stand, the governess looked up 
suddenly and said with unusual gravity : 


OPEN CONFESSION 


125 


“ Nan, while I am here I hope you will never 
run out after dark alone again. It is dangerous. 
Do you understand me, my dear ?” 

The girl’s eyes dropped. Yes, she under- 
stood perfectly. When the governess spoke in 
that low, decided voice it would have been hard 
to mistake her meaning. 

“ I had to go to-night,” Nan answered, in a 
suddenly sullen voice. 

“ If you had waited a few moments I could 
have, and most willingly would have, gone with 
you. Never hesitate to ask me. I am always 
at your service. That is what I am here 
for.” 

Nan hesitated. “ I — I thought you had gone 
away — for good,” she stammered, lamely. 

Miss Blake flushed. “ What made you think 
I had gone away for good ?” she asked, slowly 
repeating the girl’s words. 

Nan shook her head and gulped. 

“ I was in my room,” continued the governess, 
after a pause, “ and I heard — ” 

Nan put out both hands. “ I know it ! I 
know it !” she gasped. “ But I didn’t mean 
what I said — I didn’t, honestly and truly. Be- 
fore you came I learned it off, and I meant to 


126 


MISS WILDFIRE 


say it, but that was before I saw you. I feel 
different now, and I hope — I hope — ” 

Miss Blake’s hand was laid quietly on hers. 

“ Wait a moment, Nan. Don’t go on till you 
know what I was going to say. You seem to be 
trying to explain something that perhaps you 
might regret later. You think I overheard 
something you would rather I did not know ? 
What I was going to say is this : I was in my 
room this afternoon and I heard a man crying 
‘ Chestnuts !’ It carried me back to the time 
when I was a little girl and used to roast them 
in this very — ” she hesitated, then added slowly, 
“town. So I went out to buy some, that we 
might have a little jollification together with 
nuts and apples and perhaps a cookie or two, if 
Delia would give them to us. That is why I 
went out.” 

Nan twisted her fingers and looked down. 
“ And I went out because you did,” she faltered. 
“ I thought you had gone away, and I went to 
Mr. Turner’s to bring you back — if you would 
come. Say, now, didn’t you hear what I said to 
Delia ? I was awfully mad, and I guess I spoke 
out loud enough so folks on the next block could 
have heard. Honest now, didn’t you ?” 


OPEN CONFESSION 


127 


Miss Blake did not answer at once, and Nan 
could see that a struggle of some sort was going 
on in her mind. When she raised her face her 
eyes were very grave. 

“ Yes, Nan, I did hear!” she confessed, hon- 
estly. 

The girl’s cheeks blazed with sudden shame. 

“ And yet you weren’t going to leave?” she 
said. “ You were only going to do a kindness 
to me ?” 

Miss Blake shook her head. 

“ Dear Nan,” she answered, smiling wistfully, 
“ a good soldier never runs away for a mere 
wound. He stays on the field until he has won 
his battle or — until — he is mortally hurt. I do 
not think you will ever wish to cut me as deeply 
as that, and so — and so — I will stay until — the 
general orders me off the field. The day I hear 
that your father is to come back, that day I will 
resign my position in this house. Until then, 
however, you must reconcile yourself to my 
presence here, and I think we should both be 
much happier if you would try to do so at once, 
my dear.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


nan’s heroine 

The strain Nan had given her ankle proved 
more serious than either she or Miss Blake had 
expected. It threatened to keep her chained to 
the sofa for days to come, and the girl’s only 
comfort lay in the thought that now, of course, 
the governess would not force the question of 
study, and after she was u]i and about again 
she might be able to dispose of it altogether, 
and save herself any more worry on that 
score. 

But Monday came, and, true to her word, 
Miss Blake appeared in the library after break- 
fast with an armful of school-books, to 
which she kept Nan fastened until luncheon 
time. It was perfectly clear that there was no 
escape. Miss Blake was armed with authority, 
and the girl knew herself to be under control. 
She fretted against it so persistently that if the 
governess had not had an enduring patience she 
must have despaired over and over again under 
128 


nan's heroine 129 

the strain of Nan’s sullen tempers, herce out- 
breaks, and lazy moods. There were moments 
when the girl seemed to be fairly tractable, but 
there was no knowing when the whim would seize 
her to fall back into her old ways, so that, at the 
best of times, Miss Blake did not dare relax her 
control. Then Nan would kick her heels 
sulkily, and comfort herself with the thought 
that when her father came home all this would 
be put an end to. Miss Blake would go. 
Hadn’t she said so herself? And that would 
finish up this studying business quick enough. 
She could cajole her father easily into letting 
her stay away from school, and then — here she 
would be,* as happy as you please, with only 
those two, Delia, and her dear daddy, to look 
after her, and no one at all would say no 
to anything she might choose to do. It was a 
blissful prospect. In the meantime there were 
lessons, and — Miss Blake. 

But after a few days Nan found that, some- 
how, the lessons were not so hard after all, and 
she never would have believed that they could 
be so interesting. While as for Miss Blake — 
Well, a woman who sits reading “ Treasure 
Island” and such books to one for hours to- 
9 


130 


MISS WILDFIRE 


gether can’t be regarded entirely in the light of 
a nuisance. 

“ I never knew geography was so nice before/’ 
Nan admitted one day after lessons were over. 
“ I used to hate it, but now, why it’s downright 
jolly ! I never saw such beautiful pictures ! 
Where in the world did you ever get so 
many ?” 

“ I took them myself !” 

Nan’s eyes widened. “ Why, have you been 
to all these places ?” she asked, not a little awe- 
struck. 

Miss Blake confessed she had. 

“ And you took all these photographs your 
own self?” persisted the girl. 

The governess laughed. “I’m like George 
Washington, Nan,” she said. “ I cannot tell a 
lie ! I did them with my little — Kodak !” 

Nan fairly gulped. She would have said 
“ Jiminy !” but she knew Miss Blake dis- 
approved of “ Jiminy !” and somehow, she was 
willing to humor her just now. 

“ Only,” went on the governess, “ it isn’t a 
little Kodak at all. It is a very fine camera 
indeed. Some day, if you like, I will show it to 
you, and then, perhaps you will be interested 


nan’s heroine 


131 


enough to care to learn how to take some pho- 
tographs yourself.’’ 

Nan bounced up and down on the sofa with 
delight. “ Oh, won’t I, though !” she exclaimed 
feverishly. “ Just won’t I !” 

“ But mind you, my dear,” warned Miss 
Blake. “ If you once undertake it, I want you 
to persist. It is not to be any ‘ You-press-the- 
botton-and-we-do-the-rest ’ affair. I want you 
to learn to finish up your work yourself. Do 
you think you will care to take so much 
trouble ?” 

Nan nodded energetically. 

“ Very well, then. So it stands. If you are 
willing to learn I’ll gladly teach.” 

“ Who taught you ?” asked the girl curiously. 

Miss Blake shook her head. “ Just a man 
whom I paid for his trouble,” she returned sim- 
ply. “ I wanted to learn, and so I went into a 
gallery and got some experience, and then came 
away and experimented on my own account. 
It has taken me years, and I am still working 
hard at it, for I believe in never being satisfied 
with anything less than the best one can do.” 

Nan blinked. She herself believed in being 
satisfied with whatever came easiest, unless it 


132 


MISS WILDFIRE 


was in the way of some sport, where she liked 
to excel. 

“ How jolly it must be to travel about — all 
over the world/’ said she, musingly. “ When 
I’m grown up I guess I’ll be a governess, or a 
companion, or something, just as you are, and 
get a place with some awfully nice people who 
will take me everywhere. Was it nice where 
you where before you came here? Were there 
any girls ? Why did you leave ?” 

Miss Blake looked troubled, but Nan was not 
used to noticing other people’s moods, and did 
not even stop to hear the replies to her own 
questions. “ If you’ve been all over the world, 
you’ll know where my father is, and can tell me 
about it. Oh, do, do ! Show me some pictures 
of Ifidia, won’t you please? Just think, I 
haven’t seen my father for two years, and he 
won’t be home until next autumn — almost a 
year from now. You ought to see him ! He is 
the best man in the world — only I guess he is 
lonely, because my mother died when I was a 
baby, and he hasn’t any one to keep house for 
him but Delia and me. Mr. Turner says he has 
lost a lot of money lately, too. I guess that’s 
why he went to India. If I had been older he 


Nan’s HEKOINE 


133 


would have taken me. But he had to leave me 
here with Delia. Delia has been in our family, 
for, oh, ever so many years. She first came to 
live here when my mother was a young girl. 
She says it was the j oiliest house you ever saw. 
My grandfather and grandmother were alive 
then, and mamma had a young friend, who was 
an orphan, who lived with them. They loved 
her just as if she had been their own child, and 
she and my mother were so fond of each other 
that — well, Delia says it was beautiful to see 
them together. And such times ! There were 
parties and all sorts of things all the time till, 
Delia says, it was a caution. My grandfather 
wasn’t very well off, and lots and lots of times 
my mother wouldn’t have been able to go to the 
parties she was invited to, if it hadn’t been for 
that friend of hers, who used to give her the 
most beautiful things — dresses, and gloves, and 
all she needed. She had loads of money, and 
every time she got anything for herself she got 
its mate for my mother. Don’t you think that 
was pretty generous ?” 

Miss Blake bit her lip. “ One can’t judge, 
Nan,” she said. “ If your mother shared her 
home with this girl and she had money and 


134 


MISS WILDFIRE 


your mother had not, I think it was only right 
that they should share the money too. No, I 
do not think it was generous.” 

Nan tossed her head. “ Well, I think it was 
and so does Delia,” she retorted hotly. 

“ It is easy enough to give when one has 
plenty,” pursued the governess, almost sternly. 
“ But when one has little and one gives that — 
well, then it is hard and then perhaps one may 
be what the world calls generous, though I 
should call it merely grateful.” 

Nan did not understand very clearly. She 
thought Miss Blake meant to disparage her 
mother’s friend, the woman she had been brought 
up to think was one of the noblest beings on 
earth. She felt angry and hurt and almost re- 
gretted that she had confided the story to her 
since she made so little of her heroine’s conduct. 

“ I don’t care ; I think she was perfectly fine 
and so does Delia. My mother just loved her 
and I guess she knew whether she was generous 
or not. When she went away my mother was 
wild. She cried her eyes out. But she married 
my father soon after that, and then — well, my 
grandmother died and then my grandfather, and 
I was born and my mother died and — O dear 


nan’s heroine 


135 


me ! it was dreadful. Delia says many and 
many a time slie has gone down oil her knees 
and just prayed that that girl would come back, 
but she has never come and she won’t now, be- 
cause it is years and years ago and maybe she’s 
dead herself by this time. Do you think Delia 
would have prayed for Miss Severance to come 
back if she hadn’t been the best and most gen- 
erous girl in the world ?” 

Miss Blake smiled faintly. “ That settles it, 
Kan !” she declared. “ If Delia wanted her back 
she must at least have tried to be good. And 
even trying is something, isn’t it ? And now, 
how do you think luncheon would taste ?” 

Kan was more than ever inclined to be sulky. 
Her loyalty was touched. Kot alone did Miss 
Blake fail to appreciate her heroine, but she 
showed quite plainly that she did not want to 
hear about her. “All the time I was talking 
she fidgeted around and looked too unhappy for 
anything. I guess she needn’t think she’s the 
only one in the world that can make people love 
her. I don’t think it’s very nice to be jealous 
of a person you never saw. Pooh ! I like what 
she said about trying to be good. I guess Delia 
knows,” said Kan. 


136 


MISS WILDFIRE 


They ate their luncheon together in the 
library, and after they had finished Miss Blake 
excused herself and went upstairs to prepare to 
go out. 

“ After being in the house all the morning 
one needs a change/’ she said, “ and it would 
be a sin to spend all of this glorious day in- 
doors.” 

Nan sighed. How she longed to get away 
herself. But of course that was impossible, with 
this old troublesome ankle bothering her. If 
she could not step across the room, how could 
she hope to get into the street ? O dear ! When 
would it be well ?” 

Miss Blake was tripping about upstairs and 
Nan could hear her singing as she went. Delia 
was up there, too. When Delia walked the chan- 
delier shook. 

<# She follows Miss Blake about so, it’s per- 
fectly disgusting,” thought the girl resentfully. 
“ Now, I wonder what she wants in my room. 
I don’t thank either of them for going poking 
about my things when I’m not there, so now ! 
Well, I’m glad she’s coming down, at any rate.” 

The governess appeared in the library a mo- 
ment later, but Nan could scarcely see her face, 


nan’s heroine 


137 


she was so overladen with wraps and rugs. She 
turned the whole assortment into a chair, and 
before the girl could ask a question, she found 
herself being bundled up and made ready for 
the street. 

“ What are you doing ?” she gasped out at 
length. “You know I can’t walk.” 

“ Nobody asked you, sir !” quoted the gov- 
erness, gayly. 

“ Then what are you putting on my things 

for r 

“ Ready, Delia?” sang out Miss Blake, 
cheerfully. 

Nan heard the front door open. Then heavy 
steps came clumping along the hall, and in 
another moment she was being borne down the 
outer steps and set comfortably in a carriage by 
the good old Irish coachman, Mike, from the 
livery stable round the corner. 

“ Are you comfortable?” asked Miss Blake, 
with her foot on the step. “ Have you everything 
you need ?” 

Nan nodded, and the governess, taking her 
place beside her, motioned to Michael, who 
climbed to his seat on the box, and off they 
drove. 


138 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ There is Delia at the window ! Let’s wave 
to her !” cried Miss Blake, with one of her happy 
girl-hearted laughs. 

It seemed to Nan that she had never seen the 
Park look as beautiful as it did to-day. To be 
sure, most of the trees were bare, but the naked 
branches stood out delicate and clear against the 
blue of the violet-clouded sky and by the lake- 
shore the pollard willows were gray and misty, 
and a few russet maple trees still held their 
leaves against the sweeping wind. They saw 
numberless wheels spinning along the smooth 
paths, and though the governess said nothing, 
Nan knew she had given up this chance of a 
ride for her sake. 

Impulsively she put out her hand and laid it 
on Miss Blake’s. 

“ If it weren’t for me you’d be on your wheel 
now, wouldn’t you ?” she asked. 

“ Yes,” came the answer, prompt as an echo. 
“ But as it is I’m not on my wheel, and it so 
happens that I’m doing something that gives me 
much more pleasure.” 

“ If I had a bike it would make me simply 
furious to have to give up a ride such a day as 
this,” said Nan. 


NAN S HEROINE 


139 


“Then isn’t it rather fortunate you haven’t 
one ?” asked Miss Blake, saucily. “ But seri- 
ously, Nan, why haven’t you one ?” 

Nan set her jaw. “ My father can’t afford it,” 
she said proudly. 

The governess turned her head to look at a 
faraway hill, and there was an embarrassing 
little pause. When she faced about again Nan 
could see that her chin was quivering, and in a 
spirit of tender thoughtfulness quite new to her, 
she hastened to change the subject since Miss 
Blake felt so badly about having asked the 
question. 

“ This is the lake where we skate in winter,” 
she said. “That is, most of the girls come 
here. I go to the Steamer. I like it better.” 

The governess looked at it and asked, ab- 
sently, “ Why ?” 

“ Oh, because its jollier there. Most of the 
girls I know — I don’t know — that is, they don’t 
know me; they don’t like me much, and I’d 
rather not go where they are. John Gardiner 
and some other boys and I go to the Steamer 
and have regular contests, and it’s the best sport 
in the world.” 

But Miss Blake was not listening. She was 


140 


MISS WILDFIRF 


thinking of other things, and only came back to 
a sense of what was going on about her when 
Nan gave a great sigh to indicate that she 
was tired of waiting to be entertained. The 
governess roused herself with a smile and an 
apology and began at once to chat briskly 
again. 

“ Whenever you want Michael to turn you 
have only to say so,” she said. “ What do you 
think of going down-town and buying some 
jelly or something for little Ruth Newton. We 
could stop there on our way home, and you 
could send it up with your love.” 

Nan nodded heartily. It always pleased her 
to give. She enjoyed, too, the thought of getting 
a glimpse of the shop-windows, which were 
already beginning to take on a look of holiday 
gorgeousness. So down-town they went, and 
Miss Blake not alone bought the jelly, but so 
many other things as well, that presently Nan 
began to have a feeling that for such a poor 
woman the governess was inclined to be ex- 
travagant. 

She told Delia so when they were alone to- 
gether that evening, Miss Blake having gone 
upstairs to write some letters. 


nan’s heroine 


141 


“ Oh, I guess you needn’t worry,” the woman 
said. 

“ But you don’t know how many things she 
bought,” persisted Nan. “I’m sure she can’t 
afford it. Just think, a woman that works for 
her living the way she has to! But do you 
know, Delia, I believe there’s something mys- 
terious about her, anyway. She seems to see 
right into your mind — what you’re thinking 
about ; and every once in a while she lets out a 
hint that the next minute she looks as if she 
wished she hadn’t said. I’ve noticed it lots and 
lots of times, and I’m sure she’s trying to hide 
something. What do you s’pose it is ? What 
fun it would be if she were a princess in dis- 
guise.” 

“ Well, she ain’t,” Delia almost snapped. 
“ She’s just a good little woman that’s trying to 
do her duty as far as I can make out, and if she 
spends money you must remember she has only 
herself to support.” 


CHAPTER IX 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 

“I know just the kind I want, and I won’t 
wear any other,” said Nan, irritably. 

Miss Blake made no reply, and the girl 
sauntered off to another part of the store, and 
pretended to be examining a case of trimmed 
bonnets, which she could not see because her eyes 
were half-blind with rebellious tears. What 
right had any one to tell her what sort of a hat 
she ought to get ! If her father was paying for 
it, she guessed it was nobody else’s business to 
say anything. 

Miss Blake held in her hand a handsome, 
wide-brimmed felt hat, trimmed simply with 
fine ribbon and a generous bunch of quills. 

“ It’s very girlish and suitable, ma’am !” the 
saleswoman said, as she turned away to get 
another model. 

After a moment Nan came hurrying back to 
the governess’ side. 

“ Horrid old thing !” she said in a low voice, 

142 


HAYING HER OWN WAY 


143 


flinging her hand out with a gesture of disgust 
toward the despised hat. “ It’s stiff as a poker. 
Do you suppose I want to have just bunched-up 
bows with some spikes stuck in the middle to 
trim my hat ! And all one color, too ! I guess 
not !” 

The governess bit her lip. “ Perhaps we may 
be. able to find something more to your fancy,” 
she said. “ But plumes are expensive and per- 
ishable, and if you have too many colors your 
hat will look vulgar.” 

“ I hate this place anyhow,” went on Nan, 
disdainfully. “ Bigelow’s ! Who ever thought 
of going to Bigelow’s?” 

“ Your mother did,” said Miss Blake, quickly. 
“ That is, Delia says she did. And I myself 
know it to be one of the oldest and best firms 
in the city. One can always be sure that 
one is getting good quality for one’s money 
here.” 

“ I never was in the place before,” blurted out 
Nan, “ and I despise their hats — every one of 
them. If you won’t let me go to Sternberg’s, 
where they have things I like, I won’t get any- 
thing at all, so there !” 

She suddenly let her voice fall, for the sales- 


144 


MISS WILDFIRE 


woman was back again with a fresh assortment of 
shapes to select from. 

Miss Blake placed the hat she held gently 
upon a table and began to examine the others 
carefully, Nan standing by in sullen silence. 

“This is a pretty one — this with the tips, 
don’t you think so ?” the governess asked, set- 
ting it on her hand and letting it revolve slowly 
while she regarded it critically with her head 
on one side. 

Nan gave a grunt of dissatisfaction. What 
she wanted was a flaring, turned-up brim, with 
a dash of red velvet underneath and a bird-of- 
paradise on top, caught in a mesh of red and 
yellow ribbons. She had seen something on 
this order in Sternberg’s window, and it had 
struck her fancy at once. 

The governess hesitated, and then put down 
the hat she held. 

“Very well. We will go to Sternberg’s,” 
she said, quietly, to Nan, in an undertone which 
the saleswoman could not distinguish. The girl 
started briskly for the door. Miss Blake re- 
mained behind a moment, aiiti then followed 
after. 

Now that she was to have her own way Nan 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 


145 


was restored to good humor, and kept up a 
stream of chatter until they reached Sternberg’s. 

“ There ! Isn’t that a beauty ?” she demanded 
at last, indicating the hat in the window. 

Miss Blake, with difficulty, concealed a shud- 
der. 

“ It seems to me rather showy. But tastes 
differ, you know. I can’t say it suits me ex- 
actly. Still, if you are pleased — you are the 
one to wear it, not I.” 

The hat was bought and Nan was radiant. 
She insisted on donning it at once, and Miss 
Blake tried not to let her discover how ashamed 
she was to be seen in the street with such a 
monstrous piece of millinery. Underneath her 
tower of gorgeousness Nan strutted like a tur- 
key-cock. 

“ I told Delia before we came away that we 
might not be home before dusk, so suppose we 
take luncheon down-town, and then, if you like, 
we will go to see Callmann. I haven’t been to 
a sleight-of-hand performance since I was a little 
girl, and I always had a liking for that sort of 
thing.” 

“ Oh, do ! Let’s! Can we?” cried Nan, in 
a burst of grateful excitement. 

10 


146 


MISS WILDFIRE 


It was nippingly cold outside, and the warm 
restaurant proved a delightful contrast. It was 
jolly to sit in the midst of all this pleasant 
bustle and be served with delicate, unfamiliar 
dishes by waiters who stood behind the chair 
and deferentially called one “ Miss.” 

Miss Blake left Nan to order whatever she 
pleased, and they dawdled over their meal 
luxuriously, the color in the girl’s cheeks deep- 
ening with the warmth and excitement until it 
almost matched the velvet in her imposing hat. 
Every now and then she glanced furtively at 
her reflection in the mirror, and the vision of 
that bird-of-paradise hovering over those huge 
butterfly bows thrilled her with a great sense 
of importance and self-satisfaction. More than 
once she saw that her hat was being noticed and 
commented on by the other guests, and she tried 
her best to seem not aware — to look modestly 
unconscious. But Miss Blake, when she caught 
some eye fixed quizzically upon their table, 
blushed to the roots of her hair, and felt as 
though it would be impossible to bear the ordeal 
for a moment longer. Still, she did not hurry 
Nai/ anJ no one knew, the girl least of all, what 
agonies of mortification she was enduring. 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 


147 


A deep-toned clock struck one full peal. 

“ That’s half-past one,” said Miss Blake, 
looking up and comparing her watch. 

“ When does the entertainment begin ?” asked 
Nan. 

“ At two, I think, or quarter after. If we 
ride up we have still a few minutes to spare, but 
if we walk it would be wise to start at once.” 

“ O let’s walk,” begged Nan. “ It’s such fun; 
there’s so much going on. And now my foot 
is well, I just want to trot all the time.” 

Though Miss Blake was a good walker and 
took a great deal of exercise, she always pre- 
ferred to ride when she was with Nan, for the 
girl forged ahead at such a rate and darted in 
among the maze of trucks and cars and car- 
riages so recklessly that there was actual danger 
as well as discomfort in trying to keep abreast 
with her. Still she made no objection to “ trot- 
ting,” and they started off at a brisk pace. 

“ Don’t you just love to be in the stores 
around Christmas-time ?” asked Nan, watching 
the crowds press and surge about the doorways 
of some of the most popular shops. “ T t’s so 
exciting and the things see*" v I al- 

luring.” 


148 MISS WILDFIRE 

“ Yes, it is very attractive — all the motion 
and color/’ replied Miss Blake, “ but I don’t 
like crowds, and when I am hemmed in at a 
counter and can’t get away I feel stifled and 
smothered, and long to scream.” 

“ Why don’t you scream then ? I would !” 
exclaimed Nan, with a laugh. “ I’d shriek, 
‘ Air ! Air !’ and then you’d see how quick the 
people would let you out.” 

Miss Blake smiled with what Nan saw was 
amusement at some just-remembered incident. 

“ I was watching a huge celebration in London 
one spring,” she said. “ It was in honor of some 
royal birthday or something, and the streets 
were packed with people all eager to get a 
glimpse of the military parade and the nota- 
bilities who were to take jiart in it. From the 
window where I sat I could not see an inch of 
pavement, the crowd was so dense. At last 
there was a sound of martial music and the 
First Regiment appeared in full, gala array. Oh, 
I assure you it was very imposing and well 
worth taking some trouble to see. The crowds 
pushed and jostled, and beyond the first line or 
two at the curb no one among them could get 
more than an occasional glimpse of a stray 


HAYING HER OWN WAY 


149 


cockade or a floating banner. Still tbe people 
were massed solidly from the gutter to tbe house- 
steps. We were wondering where the enjoy- 
ment in this came in, and congratulating our- 
selves that we were not doomed to struggle and 
fight for space in such a huddle, when suddenly 
we heard a shrill scream. It was a woman’s 
voice crying, ‘ Air ! Air ! Give me air P In 
another instant the crowd pushed back a step, 
and quite a respectably-dressed young person 
staggered weakly through the line to the curb, 
as if to get more breathing-space. Of course 
she could have got this in a much easier way by 
going in the other direction, but you see her 
plan was to get a better view of the procession, 
and she thought that was a good method of 
accomplishing it. It seemed a clever trick, and 
she was just settling herself to enjoy her im- 
proved position, when quick as a flash an order 
was given : Two men unrolled one of their army 
stretchers ; the woman was whipped up and 
placed upon it; the poles were seized and off 
they went, carrying that misguided creature with 
them through all the gaping, jeering crowd. 
The last I saw of her she was hiding her face in 
the coarse army blanket, probably ‘ crying her 


150 


MISS WILDFIUE 


eyes out/ as you would say, with mortification 
and shame.” 

“ What a joke !” exclaimed Nan. “ Poor 
thing ! She didn’t see the parade after all, and I 
declare she deserved to. That was the time she 
was in it though, with a vengeance.” 

“ Look out for this cab, Nan ! Be careful. 
We cross here. Please don’t rush so — I can’t 
keep up with you,” pleaded Miss Blake. 

The girl gave her shoulders an impatient 
shrug and drew her eyebrows together in a 
scowl of irritation. But her face cleared as she 
saw Miss Blake buying their tickets at the box- 
office. 

“ Get them good and up front,” she begged. 
“ If we’re way back we can’t see a thing.” 

The governess hesitated an instant ; then a 
curious expression came over her face and she 
said, deliberately, “ Very well, dear ! Up front 
they shall be.” 

The house was quite full and Nan thought it 
a singular piece of good fortune that there were 
places left just where she would have chosen to sit. 

“ Just think of having come so late and yet 
being able to get the best seats in the house,” 
she said, exultantly. 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 


151 


Miss Blake smiled. She understood better 
than Nan did why the majority of the audience 
preferred places that were not so near the stage. 

Both she and the girl herself soon forgot 
everything else in their interest in the myste- 
rious tricks that were being performed before 
their eyes. Of course they knew that all this 
magic could be explained, but just at the moment 
it appeared difficult to imagine how. A man 
seems really no less than a magician who can 
take a red billiard ball from, no one knows 
where, out of mid-air, apparently, and suddenly 
nipping off the end, transform it into two, each 
equally as large as the first. Presently he thinks 
you would like to have a third, and, presto ! he 
draws one out from his elbow. Now a white one 
for a change ! But it is easy enough to get a 
white one. He opens his mouth and there it is, 
held between his teeth. Then he thinks he will 
swallow a red one. Pop ! it is gone ! A moment 
later he takes it out of the top of his head. 

Nan noticed that as the performance pro- 
gressed the tricks grew “ curiouser and curi- 
ouser,” as Alice would say, and the wizard 
seemed to take his audience more and more into 
his confidence. He no longer confined himself 


152 


MISS WILDFIRE 


to the stage, but came tripping down the steps 
that led from the platform to the middle aisle 
and addressed, first this one and then that from 
among his spectators — only Nan again noticed 
that these always happened to be sitting as they 
were themselves, in the foremost seats. He in- 
duced a man just in front of her to come upon 
the stage to “ assist ” him in one of his “ experi- 
ments,” and the girl trembled lest at any moment 
he might demand a similar favor of her, for 
though she was reckless enough as a general 
thing, she had sufficient delicacy to dread being 
made conspicuous in such a place as this. 

“ O Miss Blake,” she whispered in the gov- 
erness’ ear, “ can’t we move back a little ? If 
he should make me go up there I’d sink through 
the floor !” 

“ Probably you would. No doubt he would 
let you down himself — through a trap-door. 
No, we must stay where we are and we must 
bear it as best we may. Perhaps he will over- 
look us.” 

Nan thought of her hat and the many glances 
it had drawn to her in the restaurant, and for 
the first time she had a feeling of mistrust re- 
garding it. Suppose it should fix his eye, with 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 


153 


its towering bows and flaming bird-of-paradise ! 
If it did, she would hate it forever after. 

But she soon forgot her anxiety in her in- 
terest in the wizard himself. Silver pieces were 
flung in the air and then mysteriously reap- 
peared in the pocket of some unsuspecting 
member of the audience who was much sur- 
prised at seeing them straightway converted into 
so many gold ones under his very nose. Inno- 
cent-looking hoops turned out to possess the 
most remarkable faculty for resisting all at- 
tempts to link them on the part of any one of 
the spectators, and yet immediately assuming all 
manner of shapes and positions in the hands of 
the dexterous magician himself. 

At last a shallow cabinet was set upon two 
chairs in the centre of the stage, and after a 
word or two of explanation, the wizard drew 
first one chair and then the other from beneath 
it, and lo ! the magic cupboard remained poised 
in midair, without any visible means of support 
whatever. 

“ You see, ladies and gentlemen/’ announced 
the suave magician, “ this cabinet is bare ; pre- 
cisely like Mother Hubbard’s immortal cup- 
board. Can you see anything there ? No ! I 


454 


MISS WILDFIRE 


thought not. Now I will place within it these 
bells, so ; and this tambourine, so ; also this 
empty slate. You see it is empty. It is quite 
a simple slate, such as any school-child would 
use, and its sides are entirely bare. Now I close 
the doors of the cabinet, so ; wave my wand, so ; 
and — ” 

Immediately there followed the sounds of 
ringing hells and rattling tambourine, while in 
a moment all of these instruments came flying 
out of the top of the cabinet as if they had been 
vigorously flung aloft by hidden hands. The 
smiling magician stepped forward, opened the 
doors of the cabinet with a flourish, and lo ! it 
was empty save for the slate, which proved to 
be covered over with scribbled characters, and 
which he politely handed down to persons in the 
audience for examination. 

Nan was completely bewildered and so lost to 
all that was going on about her that she did not 
realize that the wizard was tripping down the 
stage steps and making his way affably up the 
middle aisle again. It was only when he spoke 
once more that she woke with a great start, and 
then to her horror she found he was addressing 
her. 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 


155 


u I am sure this young lady will not refuse 
me the loan of her hat for my next experi- 
ment,” he began with a persuasive smile. “ I 
assure you, Miss, I will not injure it in the least. 
You won’t object, will you ?” and he held out 
his hand engagingly. 

The girl stiffened against the back of her 
chair, so disconcerted that she felt actually 
dizzy. 

“ Give him your hat,” bade Miss Blake, 
quickly, as if to put an end to their really 
painful conspicuousness. 

Nan obe} r ed blindly. The smiling magician 
took it with a profound bow and held it up for 
all the audience to see. 

“ Now you perceive, ladies and gentlemen,” 
he remarked, “ that there is nothing mysterious 
about this hat. At least I am sure the ladies 
do. To the gentlemen it doubtless seems very 
mysterious, but that is because they do not un- 
derstand the art of millinery.” As he spoke he 
made his way up the aisle and to the steps that 
led to the stage. “ It is a beautiful hat. Very 
elaborate and of a most stylish shape, as you 
see, but not at all mysterious. Yet I mean to 
make it serve me in a very interesting experi- 


156 


MISS WILDFIRE 


ment, which I think you will admit is exceed- 
ingly won — ” 

But just here he stumbled upon one of the 
steps, and in trying to recover himself let Nan’s 
cherished head-gear fall and brought his whole 
weight upon it, crushing it out of all recogni- 
tion. 

“ Oh, dear, dear ! What have I done ?” he 
deplored in sincerest dismay. 

Miss Blake’s eyes fell and Nan’s lips whitened. 
Every one was looking at them now, and the 
magician was making them even more conspicu- 
ous by apologizing to them over and over again 
in the most abject fashion. 

“ How could I he so awkward ! Such a 
beautiful hat and ruined through my careless- 
ness. I have no words to describe my regret. 
Do forgive me ! But I promised to return your 
property to you uninjured, did I not, Miss? 
So, of course, I must keep my word.” He 
held the battered mass of ribbons and bird- 
of-paradise high above his head as he spoke, 
and then went forward and placed a pistol in 
the hand of his assistant on the stage. The 
man retired to a distance and the wizard held 
the hat at arm’s length as if for a target. 


HAVING HER OWN WAY 


157 


“ Now, ready ? Then — shoot !” 

A second for aim : a report ; and the smiling 
Callmann stepped forward with the hat in his 
hand, quite whole again and unimpaired. 

A shudder ran through Nan as she heard the 
applause and saw her property held up to public 
view. She dared not turn her head to look at 
Miss Blake, and she hardly heard the wizard’s 
voice as he asked to be permitted to use the hat 
for still another experiment, and she scarcely saw 
how he placed it on a table, a perfectly innocent 
looking table, and then proceeded to take from 
it a multitude of things — from a gold watch to a 
clucking hen. 

When the hen came to light the audience 
fairly shouted, and Nan thought she could never 
in the world get up courage to set that hat on 
her head again and walk out before the eyes of 
these quizzical people. '* 

“ They’ll laugh at me all the way,” she 
thought moodily. “ And if they ever see me 
in the street they’ll say, ‘ There goes that trick 
hat ! The one the hen came out of!’ I wish it 
was in Jericho !” 

Miss Blake comforted her as best she could 
with little hidden pressures of the hand and 


158 


MISS WILDFIRE 


whispered words of sympathy, but the rest of 
the performance was torture to them both, and 
when, at last, it was over and they were well on 
their way home, Nan heaved a great sigh of 
relief and tried to summon back her courage by 
declaring that “ I don’t care if they did laugh 
when that hen clucked inside it and he said 
he was afraid this was what might be called 4 a 
loud hat !’ It’s heaps better than lots I saw on 
other girls, so there !” 

44 1 am glad you are satisfied with it,” said 
Miss Blake, simply. 


CHAPTER X 


EXPERIENCES 

For the first time since Nan could remember, 
the house was full of the air of Christmas prep- 
aration. Of course she had always had presents, 
and she never failed to give Delia a gift, but there 
was no scent of mystery about the holiday cele- 
bration ; no delicious odor of a hidden Christ- 
mas tree ; no sense of unseen tokens ; nothing 
to distinguish the time from an ordinary birth- 
day anniversary. But this year everything was 
changed, and Nan was as much occupied with 
her own secrets and surprises as either Miss 
Blake or Delia, who whispered and dodged and 
smiled cunningly all day long in the most per- 
plexing manner. But she confined her prepa- 
rations to her own room, while the governess ap- 
parently needed the library and all the rest of 
the house, too, and Nan found herself barred out 
of Miss Blake’s room by her own stubborn pride 
which still forbade her to go in without a formal 
invitation. She was also locked out of the 

159 


160 


MISS WILDFIRE 


library which was now being made festive for the 
coming holiday, so that at times she wandered 
about quite helplessly in a sort of forlorn state 
of having nowhere to turn. 

She had fallen into the habit of running over 
to the Newton’s while Ruth was sick, and she 
proved such a tender nurse and entertaining com- 
panion that the child’s mother looked forward 
with relief to her visits, and only wished she 
would come oftener. 

“ She keeps Ruth so happy and contented. 
It gives me a free minute to turn ’round in, and 
is a real comfort.” 

“ I thought you would find her helpful,” re- 
sponded Miss Blake. “ She loves children, and 
they know it and love her back again. She is 
very gentle with them, and I know you may 
trust her, for she is as true as steel.” 

“ She’s a changed girl, that’s the whole truth 
of the matter. You’ve simply tamed her, the 
young savage !” 

“ Oh, Nan has a fine nature. All she needs 
is judicious training. If I were not sure of that 
I should despair many and many a time. She 
needs judicious training and a world of pa- 
tience and love.” 


EXPERIENCES 


161 


Mrs. Newton dropped her work into her lap 
and looked up earnestly into the governess’ 
face. 

“ Yes, I can believe it. What a rash, head- 
long sort of creature you must think me ! Why, 
I was as bad as Nan herself, to go over there and 
simply browbeat her as I did ! Do you suppose 
she will ever really forgive me ?” 

“ I’m sure she has done so already. Nan is 
generous. She does not bear malice. She has 
a vast amount of pride but as yet she does not 
know how to use it.” 

“ I should think it would be enough to break 
down your health — such constant care and re- 
sponsibility. It is Nan’s salvation to have you 
with her, but do you think you can hold out?” 

Miss Blake pondered a moment and then 
nodded he head decidedly. “I will hold out,” 
she said staunchly. 

“ You don’t know how boisterous she was, and 
how it shocked me ! At last I grew frenzied, 
and when Ruth was brought in to me injured 
in that way, through her fault, I supposed, I 
lost control of myself entirely, and felt that, 
come what might, the gir.l must be attended to. 
There’s no doubt of it, your Nan is improved, 
11 


162 


MISS WILDFIRE 


and if this neighborhood is not made miserable 
by her piercing war-cries, her hairbreadth ad- 
ventures, and her eccentric behavior generally, 
it is all owing to you. But here she comes her- 
self! Put away your work ! Quick !” 

Nan knocked politely at the open door. 

“ Oh, come in, dear !” said Mrs. Newton cor- 
dially, and the governess looked at her encour- 
agingly and smiled. 

“ Bridget told me to come right up,” ex- 
plained Nan. “ Is Buth out ?” 

“ No, taking a nap in the nursery. She’ll be 
awake soon now, I’m sure. Take off your things 
and sit down.” 

“ Won’t I be in the way ?” 

Mrs. Newton patted her on the shoulder. 
“ No, my dear, you won’t. On the contrary, it 
will be very pleasant to have you here to take 
cup of tea with Miss Blake and me ; will you 
excuse me a moment while I go and call Katy 
to bring it up ?” 

“ I thought you were in your room,” said Nan 
to Miss Blake as their hostess left the room. 

“ Bid you need me ? Why didn’t you knock ? 
What was it you wanted me to do ?” 

“ Oh, nothing. I didn’t need you — that is, 


EXPERIENCES 


163 


there wasn’t anything I wanted you to do, only 
— it seemed kind of lonely, and so I came over 
here.” 

“ And I thought you would be locked in your 
own room for the rest of the afternoon. How 
dreadfully mysterious we all are nowadays.” 

Nan laughed. She got out of her coat with 
a tug and a squirm and flung it on the lounge. 
Then she wrenched off her hat (the Sternberg 
affair) and tossed it carelessly after the coat. 

Miss Blake bent over and straightened the 
untidy heap without a word. 

“ Delia is making mince pie-lets for dinner,” 
announced Nan. 

“ How jolly of her !” said Miss Blake. 

“ Huh !” exclaimed Nan. “ She said you told 
her to.” 

The governess smiled. 

Mrs. Newton came in a moment later and 
after her Katy with the tea-tray. 

Nan sprawled down on the rug in complete 
comfort while Miss Blake and Mrs. Newton 
sipped their tea and talked of all sorts of things, 
to which she hardly listened. 

She was full of her own thoughts, and some- 
how they were all connected with the governess. 


164 


MISS WILDFIRE 


In fact, her influence seemed to pervade every- 
thing, ard Nan often wondered how the house 
would seem without her, now that they had 
“ sort of got used to having her around.” With- 
out a doubt she made herself useful. And some- 
how she managed to make people depend on her 
in spite of themselves. And yet she never made 
a fuss or exaggerated the things she did. She was 
always doing “ little things ” — little things that 
didn’t make any show, and yet they were so 
kind they “ sort of made you like her whether 
you wanted to or not.” This thought came 
upon Nan with a start, that roused her from 
her musing and made her sit bolt upright with 
surprise. Had Miss Blake made her like her, 
then? After all the reproaches she had cast 
upon Delia was she no better than a turn-coat 
herself ? 

“We had ours built in before we came into 
the house,” Mrs. Newton was saying. “ It is a 
vast improvement. I wouldn’t be without it for 
the world.” 

Nan pricked up her ears. She wondered 
what this desirable thing might be. 

“ Who did the work?” Miss Blake asked. 

“ Buchanan. And I’ll say this for him, he 


EXPERIENCES 


165 


did it well. I haven’t a fault to find. I think 
you’d be satisfied with him.” 

“ A person doesn’t like to put a piece of work 
like that into the hands of a man one knows 
nothing about,” resumed Miss Blake. “Fm 
glad to profit by your experience. It may save 
me, too, a great deal of worry and no little ex- 
pense.” 

“ Oh, yes,” returned Mrs. Newton. “ If one 
can economize on experience it’s a great satis- 
faction. It’s the best school I know of. But 
it’s so expensive that it ruins some of us before 
we’re done.” 

“ What’s the best school you know of?” asked 
Nan, curiously. 

“ Experience,” replied Miss Blake. 

“ Oh !” 

“ Yes ; and it’s a school we all have to go to 
at one time or another,” put in Mrs. Newton. 
“ But we might make it a good deal easier for 
ourselves sometimes if we’d take hints from our 
friends who have graduated.” 

“ Have you graduated ?” Nan asked, half in 
fun, turning to Miss Blake. 

But Mrs. Newton broke in before the gov- 
erness could reply for herself. “ Graduated I 


166 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Well, I should think so ! Why, she has car- 
ried off honors! She has taken a diploma — 
with a ribbon ’round it !” 

Miss Blake laughed. “ Nothing of the sort, 
Nan. I’ve had a few lessons, that is all.” 

“ Oh, tell about some of them, won’t you ?” 
cried Nan, eagerly. “ It would be lots of fun.” 

The governess considered. 

“ Well, yes. I will tell you of the very first 
lesson I can remember, if you care to hear,” 
she answered, with a wistful smile. “ I won’t 
promise it will be ‘ lots of fun,’ though.” 

“ Never mind ! Tell it !” And Nan settled 
herself more comfortably against the governess’ 
knee quite as if that person were, in reality, her 
prop and stay, instead of being only some one 
she “ sort of liked in spite of herself.” 

“ I think it must have been the first real 
experience I ever had,” began Miss Blake, 
musingly. “ At least it is the first one I recol- 
lect. I was the littlest bit of a girl when my 
mother died ; too young to realize it, and my 
father scarcely outlived her a week. He died 
very suddenly. They used to tell me that he 
died from grief. Anyway, he was sitting at his 
desk looking over some important papers con- 


EXPERIENCES 


167 


nected with my mother’s affairs, when suddenly 
he put his hand to his heart, gave a faint gasp — 
and was gone.” 

“ What an elegant way to die !” broke in Nan 
impulsively. 

Mrs. Newton gave an exclamation of real 
horror at her flippancy. 

“ Oh, you know what I mean !” the girl has- 
tened to protest. “ I think it must be worlds 
better than being sick, or hurt in an accident, 
or any of those dreadful, lingering deaths.” 

“ After that I was given over into the charge 
of some distant connections of my father,” 
continued the governess. “ They were good, 
conscientious people, but they had no chil- 
dren of their own, and did not like other 
people’s. I presume I was not a very captivat- 
ing baby.” 

Nan straightened up suddenly. “ I bet you 
were, though,” she interrupted. “You must 
have been a dot of a thing, with crinkly hair 
and dimples, and mites of hands and feet. I 
should think they would have loved you — I 
mean, a poor little lonely baby like you.” 

Miss Blake smiled. “Well, however that 
was, Nan, I was brought up very strictly, and 


168 


MISS WILDFIRE 


I assure you, I was made to mind my P’s and 
Q’s. One could not trifle with Aunt Rebecca ! 
Well, one morning I was sitting at the foot of 
the staircase playing house. I can see myself 
now, squatting on the lowest step, my fat little 
legs scarcely long enough to reach the floor. I 
had on a checked gingham pinafore, and my 
liair was drawn tight behind my ears and 
braided into two tiny tails with red ribbons on 
the ends. I knew it was against the rule to 
play house in the hall, anywhere, in fact, but in 
my own little room — with the doors shut, but 
somehow I felt reckless that day, and when I 
heard Aunt Rebecca walking to and fro, just 
above my head, I didn’t scamper off as I ordi- 
narily would have done ; I just sat still and 
said to myself, ‘ I don’t care ! I don’t care !’ It 
seemed to give me a lot of courage, and I wasn’t 
a bit afraid, even when Aunt Rebecca’s foot- 
steps came nearer, and I knew she could see me 
from the top of the stairs. Indeed, I grew 
mightily brave ; so brave, that after a couple of 
minutes I raised my voice and piped out : ‘ Aunt 
Becca! Aunt Becca!’ 

“ ‘Well,’ answered she, ‘ what is it? what do 
you want?’ 


EXPERIENCES 


169 


“ Even the severity of her voice didn’t dis- 
may me that rash morning. 

“ ‘ I want Lilly/ said I, airily. Lilly was 
my precious doll. ‘She’s in her little chair in 
my room ; won’t you please to pitch me Lilly?’ 

“ For a moment Aunt Rebecca, hesitated. I 
think she must have been petrified by my auda- 
city. But she recovered herself and turned, and 
without a word went to my room and got Lilly 
from her ‘ little chair.’ I was as complacent as 
if it had been quite the usual thing for Aunt 
Rebecca to fetch and carry for me. Indeed, 
perhaps I imagined I was instituting a new 
order of things, and that in future she would do 
my errands, instead of I hers. 

“She came back to the head of the stairway 
and I looked up pleasantly, half-expecting, I 
suppose, that she would come down and deliver 
my darling dolly safely into my hands. But 
she didn’t. If I were giving orders she would 
obey me to the letter. She ‘ pitched me Lilly.’ 
[ gave a dismal wail of dismay as I saw my dear 
baby come hurtling through the air, but when 
she landed on her blessed head, and I heard 
the crack of breaking china, I just abandoned 
myself to grief and howled desperately. Aunt 


170 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Rebecca went about her business as if nothing 
had happened, and by and by I stole off with 
my ruined dolly and cried to myself in the back 
yard — because I had no one else to cry to.” 

“ You poor little thing !” burst out Nan, in- 
dignantly. “What a detestable woman ! As 
if she could have expected such a baby to 
know !” 

“ You’re wrong, Nan !” the governess said. 
“ It was a wholesome lesson, and I am grateful 
to Aunt Rebecca for having given it to me.” 

“ Well, I shouldn’t think you would be,” in- 
sisted the girl rebelliously. “ The idea of her 
expecting such a mite to understand !” 

“ Ah, but you see I did understand. And I 
have never forgotten it. I have never asked 
any one to ‘ pitch me Lilly ’ since that day — I 
mean never when I could go and get her my- 
self.” 

Nan pondered over it moodily for a moment. 
“ And did you have to stay in that house until 
you were grown up ?” she demanded. 

“ Oh, no ! When I was about your age I went 
to boarding-school, and everything was changed 
and different after that.” 

“ How ?” 


EXPERIENCES 


171 


“ Well, I made dear, faithful friends who took 
me to their hearts and who made my life rich with 
their love. All that other hungry, empty time 
was over, and for many years I never knew what 
it was to feel sad or lonely, or to have a wish 
that would not have been gladly gratified if it 
could be.” 

“ Now they were something like !” ejaculated 
Nan. “Dear me! I should think you would 
have been sorry when you got through school.” 

Miss Blake made no reply. She put up her 
hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the 
fire, and for a second or two there was a deep 
hush in the room. Nan was the first to break' 
the silence. 

“ Goodness !” she cried, springing to her feet 
with a bound. “ It’s as dark as a pocket outside, 
and Delia’ll think we’re lost or something if we 
don’t go home.” 

Miss Blake surreptitiously gathered her work 
together and slipped it into her bag. “ Yes, 
we must scamper,” she exclaimed, as she turned 
to help Nan on with her coat. 

“ Dear, dear, what a gorgeous hat !” exclaimed 
Mrs. Newton, as the girl set it carelessly upon 
her head. 


172 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Nan looked sheepish. “ I’m glad you like 
it !” she ventured clumsily. 

Mrs. Newton did not respond that she had 
not said she liked it. She busied herself with 
Miss Blake and her wraps, and replied merely, 
“ It’s a remarkable gay affair.” 

Then she kissed the governess “ Good-night,” 
and saw both her and Nan safely to the door. 

The two hastened across the street to see 
which could get out of the wind first. 

“ I beat !” panted the girl, as she stood in the 
vestibule and saw Miss Blake breathlessly climb 
the last step. 

“ Yes, you beat! Fair and square !” admitted 
the governess as Delia let them in, chattering 
and shivering, from the chilly air. 

“ Who’ll beat now, going upstairs ?” screamed 
Nan. 

Miss Blake made a dash for the first step and 
the two went flying up in a perfect whirl of 
laughter and fun. 

Delia had forgotten to light the gas in Nan’s 
room and the girl stumbled about blindly, 
crashing into the furniture and casting off her 
coat and hat in her old headlong fashion, not 
stopping to think of all Miss Blake’s warnings 


EXPEBIENCES 


173 


on tne subject, but just hurrying to get down 
stairs and “ beat ” the governess in another 
race. 

“ Clean hands! Smooth hair, and a neat 
dress for dinner !” sang out the governess gayly. 

Nan shrugged her shoulders in the dark and 
made a lunge at the mantelpiece for a match. 
She struck it and lit the gas, swinging off to 
the washstand as soon as it was done. 

Suddenly Miss Blake heard a shriek, a rush 
of feet across the floor, and then Nan’s voice 
exclaiming “ Great Scott !” in a tone that was a 
cross between a laugh and a cry. 

She did not wait a moment but hurried 
instantly to the girl’s door. 

Nan was standing beside the gas fixture, and 
in her hand was her cherished hat — a ruined 
mass of smoldering felt and charred plumage. 

“ Nan !” exclaimed Miss Blake, horrified at 
the sight. 

“ I know it ! Isn’t it awful ! I just slung it 
on the globe as I always do, and — and — when 
I lit the gas I forgot all about it, and it was 
ablaze in a minute. Don’t say a word ! I 
know you’ve told me hundreds of times not 
to put it there. But I forgot, and — O dear ! 


174 


MISS WILDFIRE 


what’ll I wear on my head the rest of the win- 
ter ? But it is too funny !” 

Miss Blake tried to look stern. 

“ I’m heartily sorry you’ve lost your hat, 
Nan,” she said, kindly, without a hint of re- 
proach in her voice. “ You were so fond of it. 
I’m really very sorry, dear !” 

Nan checked her laughter. She let the hat 
fall to the floor. A sudden impulse seized her, 
and she strode up the governess and took her by 
the shoulders. 

“ You’re a real dear not to say ‘ I told you 
so !’ ” she cried. “ And you haven’t jeered at 
me, though I know you hated the hat from the 
start. And now I’m going to tell you some- 
thing — two things ! First : I’m never going to 
hang up my clothes on the gas again, honestly ! 
And second : I hated the old thing, too. The 
minute I bought it I hated it, and I’ve hated 
it ever since.” 

Miss Blake looked up, and their eyes met. 

“ Good for you, Nan,” she said, standing on 
her tip-toes to pat the girl approvingly on the 
head. “ Good for you ! And now it’s my ' 
to confess. Wait a minute !” 

She flew out of the room, and before Nan 


EXPERIENCES 175 

fairly knew she had gone she was back again, 
and in her hand was a huge milliner’s box. 

“ I couldn’t help it !” she cried, half apolo- 
getically. “ I got it that day, just to please my- 
self — and now you’ll wear it, won’t you, dear ? 
It’s very simple, but it is of the best, and it will 
match your coat, you see.” 

She untied the string, lifted the sheets of 
tissue-paper, and displayed what even Nan had 
to admit was a beautiful hat. 

The girl looked at it in silence for a moment ; 
then she ducked down impulsively, and gave 
the governess a quick, shy kiss upon the cheek. 

“ Thank you,” she said, huskily, with a sort 
of gulp, and then she ran out of the room as 
fast as her feet would carry her. 


CHAPTER XI 


CHRISTMAS 

“ This is to be a German Christmas,” Miss 
Blake said, “ and we’re going to celebrate it on 
Christmas eve. Of all the different customs 
I’ve seen I like the German the best. It is so 
jolly and freundlich, as they say over ihere.” 

So on Christmas eve the library doors were 
thrown open for the first time in days and days, 
and there stood the most glorious tree that Nan 
had ever seen. It was decked out witn a hun- 
dred glistening things and laden down with red 
apples, yellow oranges, and pounds a rl pound’s 
of peppermint candy, and barley-sugar figures, 
pretty to see and delicious to eat, to say nothing 
of Marzipan, to which the girl was introduced 
for the first time, and which she found alto- 
gether fascinating. Innumerable candles burned 
gayly among the spreading boughs^and at the 
very top hovered an angel with outspread, shim- 
mering wings, her hands bearing a garland of 
glistening tinsel, and her garments ablaze with 
176 


CHRISTMAS 


177 


gold and silver decoration. Grown girl as slie 
was, Nan was delighted. It was all so new and 
strange ; so different from anything she had 
ever experienced before. 

Beside the tree were tables spread with white 
cloths, and upon these lay the presents, and 
wonderful presents they proved. Miss Blake 
and Delia had outdone themselves, and Nan’s 
table was a sight to behold. It seemed to her 
it held everything she had ever expressed a 
wish for-^except a bicycle, of course. 

A pocket-kodak from Miss Blake, a banjo 
from her father, skates from Delia, she had 
longed for just such a new pair, and innumer- 
able other 1 articles bearing no giver’s name, but 
coming, every one, from the same generous 
source Nia*„knew well enough. She absolutely 
lost her head in the delight of possessing such 
an array of treasures. 

Her own little offerings seemed to her poor 
and mean in comparison with this display ; but 
Miss Blake’s eyes actually filled with grateful 
tears at the ight of the half-dozen linen hand- 
kerchiefs the girl had marked for her with so 
much trouble and at the cost of so many hours of 
recreation, and Delia hugged her rapturously 
12 


178 


MISS WILDFIRE 


at the sight of the gorgeous dress-pattern that 
Nan had selected for her “ all alone by herself/’ 
and that had come out of the saving of more 
than a half-year’s allowance of precious pocket- 
money. 

“ Now, Nan !” said Miss Blake, when the first 
excitement had somewhat subsided, “ there is 
one more surprise that Delia and Mr. Turner 
and I have planned for you, and as I expect it 
to arrive at any moment now, and as it is pretty 
big I want you to help clear away these tables 
to give it lots of room to move about in. We 
want to get everything out of the way and all 
the presents safely stowed aside upstairs so 
nothing will be broken. While we are going 
back and forth you may guess what it is, if you 
like.” 

“A bicycle?” ventured Nan, stridi g up- 
stairs with her kodak in one arm and a bundle 
of books in the other. 

“ No, it’s not a bicycle. Guess again. I’ll 
give you two more,” answered the governess, fol- 
lowing after her with her load. 

“ I know what I want next to a bicycle.” 

“ What ?” 

“ I don’t like to say.” 


CHRISTMAS 


179 


“ Why ?” 

“ Well, you know/’ hesitated the girl, “if I 
said what it was, and if what you’ve got turned 
out something different, you might feel disap- 
pointed because you might think I did.” 

Miss Blake smiled. “ That’s a generous 
thought. Nan,” she said ; “ but I give you free 
leave to speak out.” 

Even now the girl hesitated, and stood awk- 
wardly balancing herself against the baluster- 
rail. “ Even if you wanted to you couldn’t give 
it to me,” she blurted out, at length. 

“ Why ?” repeated Miss Blake. 

“ Because — oh, because — it wouldn’t come,” 
she cried, with a rueful laugh. 

“Now that sounds ominous,” exclaimed the 
governess, as she and Nan started on their last 
trip. “ It sounds as if you wanted a horse, or 
something of that sort, that might prove balky.” 

“ No, it isn’t a horse. But it’s balky enough, 
if that’s all.” 

“ Then tell me why it wouldn’t come ?” 

Nan let her armful of gifts fall on her coun- 
terpane in a heap. “ Oh, because — because — its 
mothers don’t approve of me. What I want is 
a party, so there ! and I couldn’t have one be- 


180 


MISS WILDFIRE 


cause, even if my father could afford it, no one 
would come. Grace Ellis wouldn’t, nor Mary 
Brewster, nor any of those girls I’d want. They 
turn up their noses at me because they think I 
don’t know how to behave. Once Louie Hawes 
spoke to me and I liked her, but the next time I 
saw her she looked the other way, and I suppose 
some one had told her something she didn’t 
approve of. So she wouldn’t come either — no 
matter how much I asked her, and of course I 
wouldn’t ask her at all. Mrs. Andrews up the 
street asked me to Buth’s party last winter, but 
I heard their girl tell Delia that she did it 
because she had known my mother and felt 
obliged to, so I wouldn’t go. I couldn’t after 
that, you know. I did go to the Buckstone 
twins’ party, but all the other girls got off in 
corners and laughed and talked, and I was left 
out and had to shift for myself. So I went and 
talked to John Gardiner and Harley Morris and 
those, and of course we got on first-rate — we 
always do, for if I can’t dance I can skate, and 
the boys got me to promise I’d go with them 
the next good ice, and we got talking about 
other things, and I never thought anything 
about the girls any more until Mrs. Buckstone 


CHRISTMAS 


181 


came up and said, ‘ I’m sorry, my dear, to break 
up this pleasant group, but we can’t permit you 
to monopolize our young gentlemen. The rest 
of the young ladies are waiting for partners.’ 
Then I knew I had got myself into a scrape, 
for Mrs. Buckstone was dreadfully icy and the 
girls were furious. So you see no one would 
come.” 

Miss Blake caught up a stray lock of hair at 
the girl’s temple and tucked it back into place, 
smoothed the ribbon upon her “ best dress ” 
collar, and said tenderly : 

“Well, that will all be made right to-night, I 
guess. Come, take my hand, and let’s fly 
down stairs, and be ready to receive, for you’ve 
got your wish — there’s the bell ! — and your 
party is coming in.” 

They met the first comers on the stairs, and 
had to hurry past them to avoid getting caught 
by a second installment. After that the guests 
came quick and fast, and Nan had all she could 
do to welcome them and wonder dimly in be- 
tween how things w'ere to be started, so that 
everybody should have a good time. 

But, bless you ! She might have saved her- 
self the trouble, for Miss Blake singly set 


182 


MISS WILDFIRE 


tilings going without any bother at all, and be- 
fore Nan realized what was happening, she saw 
the governess and big John Gardiner leading 
in a lively game, while the musie of a piano 
and some violins, which were hidden away out 
of sight, fell upon her delighted ear. She fol- 
lowed the sound, and it took her to the glass 
extension, which, to her astonishment, was all 
alight, and fragrant with flowering plants and 
towering palms. The “ old trunks and things ” 
that had littered the place were gone, and in 
their stead was all this soft greenness and 
bloom, while from above hung graceful lanterns, 
sending out a tender light that made the leaves 
look shadowy and waxen, and gave the spot a 
peculiar air of mystery and grace. 

She found Louie Hawes and Buth Andrews 
hidden away in a snug corner behind a screen- 
ing rubber- tree. They were apparently deep 
in conversation when she came up, but at sight 
of her they fell suddenly silent and looked 
embarrassed and ill at ease. For a moment 
Nan was at a loss what to do. Then, all at 
once, Miss Blake’s rule for etiquette flashed 
across her mind : 

“ When you don’t know how to act, Nan, do 


CHRISTMAS 


183 


something honest and kind, and that will be 
sure to be right.” 

She told herself that perhaps after all, the 
girls had not been talking about her, and said 
to them pleasantly : 

“ Do you like it away back here ? It’s rather 
out of the way of the games; but don’t you 
want to play ?” 

“ Oh, yes ; by and by,” stammered Ruth, 
awkwardly. “ It’s awfully pretty in this con- 
servatory, and Lu and I got in here and 
couldn’t get away. One wants to sit still and 
just enjoy it. I think I never saw such dainty 
lanterns.” 

The conversation seemed on the point of 
coming to a standstill, but Nan plunged in again, 
her sense of being hostess spurring her on. 

“ I guess they’re some Miss Blake brought 
with her from China, or somewhere. She has 
been around the world, and has collected any 
number of beautiful things. Some of them are 
perfectly fine.” 

“ Oh, I think she herself is one of the love- 
liest things !” cried Ruth, enthusiastically. “ She 
has a darling face. One wants to kiss her, she’s 
so dear!” 


184 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Mamma says she used to know her years ago 
at school,” said Louie. “ She says she is one 
of the finest characters she knows. She was 
delighted to have me come when Miss Blake 
asked me to your party.” 

“ Yes, it was awfully nice of you to think of 
us,” put in Rnth, laboriously. 

Again the conversation threatened to flag. 
But here was Nan’s opportunity to do some- 
thing honest, and she did it. 

“ Oh, don’t thank me. I didn’t think of you,” 
she returned bluntly ; “ that is, I didn’t know 
anything at all about the party myself until a 
little while ago. Miss Blake did it all. I don’t 
know how in the world she ever happened to 
ask just the ones I wanted, though.” 

Buth and Louie exchanged glances. Then 
they laughed. 

“Well, if you didn’t think of us,” they said, 
“ you wanted us, so it’s nice of you all the same.” 

That broke the ice, and it wasn’t five minutes 
before all three were sitting together and chat- 
ting as comfortably as if they had been on the 
most intimate terms of friendship for years, and 
it was only Nan’s sense of her responsibility as 
hostess that dragged her away at last. 


CHRISTMAS 


185 


“Miss Blake will wonder where we are. 
Won’t you come into the other room ? Besides 
you can’t enjoy being cooped up in this little 
corner when the fun is going on outside.” 

“Oh, but we do enjoy it !” protested Ruth. 
“ It’s giving us a chance to get acquainted with 
you. And we want you to promise us that 
you’ll go skating with us day after to-morrow. 
Please do !” 

“ Of course we know how you skate,” declared 
Louie, “ and we’ll be so proud to have such a 
champion in our club. Say you’ll come ! And 
don’t hold it against us that we haven’t asked 
you before.” 

Nan’s heart leaped. “ Why, I’ll love to,” 
she said with a frankness equal to Louie’s own, 
adding in a tone quite new to her, “ if Miss 
Blake will let me.” 

Grace Ellis and Mary Brewster lifted their 
eyebrows in surprise as the three girls appeared 
in the doorway, chatting so intimately and being 
so plainly on the best of terms. 

“ Dear me !” whispered Grace, “ what’s come 
over Lu and Ruth ? They actually look as if 
they liked her.” 

“ Don’t you believe it,” declared Mary sourly. 


186 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ They’re here at her party and they can’t ex- 
actly shove her off in her own house, but it will 
be ‘ for one night only.’ Now you see ! They 
won’t want her around now any more than they 
have before — a rowdyish thing like that.” 

She had scarcely replaced her bitter expres- 
sion by one more suited to the time and place 
when Louie came over to where they were, her 
face wreathed in smiles, and her arm flung im- 
pulsively around Nan’s waist. 

“ O girls !” she cried. “ Isn’t it nice ? Ruth 
and I have made Nan promise that she’ll come 
skating with us day after to-morrow, and she’s 
going to join the club. Won’t it put a feather 
in our cap to have such a member ?” 

Mary knit her brows and Grace smiled icily. 

“ Very nice,” they responded coldly. 

Nan’s eyes flashed, and then suddenly low- 
ered. “ Oh ! I didn’t give a definite promise,” 
she returned quietly, and with unexpected dig- 
nity. “ I said if Miss Blake would let me. 
I’m afraid she won’t. I hurt my ankle not 
long ago, and I haven’t dared exercise it much 
since. Probably Miss Blake will think I ought 
to save it for a while yet.” 

“ But you were out on Saturday,” protested 


CHRISTMAS 


187 


Ruth. “ I saw you. Your ankle is only an 
excuse. You skate so easily, it couldn’t be a 
strain.” 

Grace looked at Mary with a curious expres- 
sion in her eyes, but neither of them added her 
voice to the other girls’ solicitations, and the 
little group stood there in what threatened to 
become a painful silence when Nan felt a light 
touch on her shoulder, and, turning around, 
discovered Miss Blake standing at her elbow. 

“ O Nan !” she said, smiling brightly at the 
other girls, as if to excuse herself for not in- 
cluding them in her familiarity, “ won’t you 
please go and see if you can’t entertain that 
poor young Joe Tracy ? I’ve done my best, but 
he won’t come out of his shell for all I can do, 
and I think your hearty, breezy way is just 
what he needs. He looks so forlorn, tucked 
away ‘ all alone by himself,’ as you would say.” 

She patted the girl affectionately on the 
shoulder as she sent her on her way, saying 
heartily, as she passed out of ear-shot : “ I 
always feel perfectly secure when I can fall 
back on Nan to help me out with shy, sensitive 
people. She has such a great, warm heart that 
it seems to thaw their stiffness right out of them.” 


188 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Louie threw her arm impulsively about the 
governess’ waist : 

“ You’re such a dear !” she cried, demon- 
stratively ; “ and I’m over and over obliged to 
you for letting me come here and get acquainted 
with Nan. I think she is ever so nice, and it’s 
a shame that we haven’t known each other be- 
fore.” 

Miss Blake gave the girl a hearty smile. 
“ Better late than never,” she returned gayly. 

Grace Ellis reddened and Mary Brewster 
tilted her chin superciliously, but they both 
turned their eyes suddenly in the direction of 
the other end of the room as Ruth Andrews 
grasped Miss Blake’s arm, and whispered ex- 
citedly : 

“For goodness’ sake, do look over there! 
Nan has got Joe Tracy laughing already.” 

Sure enough, the lad’s pale, sensitive face was 
all aglow, and, as he listened to what the girl 
was saying, his eyes brightened and his mouth 
danced up at the corners in a laugh of genuine 
appreciation. Nan was gesticulating in her 
own graphic fashion, and the girls could easily 
follow her by watching her expression and her 
vivid pantomime. 


CHRISTMAS 


189 


Plainly she was describing the sleight-of-hand 
performance to her bashful friend, and Miss 
Blake could readily see that she was not sparing 
herself in the recital. 

She raised her hands to her head and pre- 
tended to take off her hat, which she made 
a show of reluctantly surrendering to some one 
who received it with a profound bow. Then 
she suddenly leaned forward, as if stumbling on 
something, and the next moment she held up 
her hand and seemed to be regarding some 
article upon it with an exaggeratedly doleful 
expression that was such an exact imitation of 
the renowned wizard’s that Miss Blake recog- 
nized it at once, and laughed as heartily as Joe 
Tracy himself. By this time the girls were 
thoroughly interested, and kept their eyes fixed 
on Nan so that they might not lose one gesture 
nor the slightest change of expression. 

“ O dear ! Those Buckstone girls ! Why do 
they get in my way,” lamented Louie Hawes, 
“ I wish they wouldn’t crowd round her so. First 
thing they know she’ll notice them, and stop 
short off and won’t tell any more.” 

“Hush, Lu! There go John Gardiner and 
Harley Morris !” 


190 


MISS WILDFIRE 


But Nan was in full swing now, and too ab- 
sorbed in her story to be aware of the little court 
that had gathered around her. Joe Tracy’s eyes 
followed her every movement with greedy inter- 
est, and when she at length imitated the flapping 
wings of the clucking hen he simply shouted 
with laughter and clapped his hands vigorously, 
quite lost to all but his appreciation and sense 
of the fun of the thing. 

It seemed to remind him of something similar 
in his own experience, for he immediately started 
in on a description of his own, and Nan sat 
listening in her turn with rapt attention. Every 
now and then a shout of laughter would come 
from the group in the distant corner, and the 
girls longed to go over and join in the fun. 

“ Listen to John Gardiner ‘ haw-haw F ” cried 
Mary Brewster. 

“ Don’t the Buckstone twins give funny little 
giggles ?” interposed Louie. 

“ Why can’t we go over and listen too ?” sug- 
gested Buth. 

So they all, even Grace Ellis and Mary 
Brewster, went softly toward the alluring cor- 
ner, and were just in time to catch the end of 
Joe Tracy’s story, which was so witty that John 


CHRISTMAS 


191 


Gardiner swayed back and forward with delight 
and shook the room with his hearty laugh, and 
the Buckstone girls' giggle joined in like a shrill 
accompaniment. 

It had all come about so naturally that Joe 
Tracy did not realize that he had been orating 
to a roomful, and he did not seem to mind it at 
all when he discovered that he and Nan had 
had an audience. His shyness was quite gone 
and his face was radiant with enjoyment. 

The piano and violins started in again, and 
Miss Blake was heard inviting bulky Tom 
Porter to escort her down to supper. 

Of course, Nan had known all along that 
there would be something to eat, but she had not 
dreamed of such a spread as this. 

It made her eyes shine and her cheeks glow 
to hear such whispered words as these: 

“ Yes, indeed ! Aren't you ?" 

“ Far and away the jolliest one yet !" 

“ Do get me some more salad, won't you, 
please ? It's the best I ever ate !" 

“ Up-and-down jolly time. A fellow likes to 
be made feel at home like this." 

Miss Blake, who without seeming to be watch- 
ing any one, saw that every one was well sup- 


192 


MISS WILDFIRE 


plied, kept a constant eye on Nan, and at last, 
on the strength of what she discovered, thought 
it was time to interfere. 

“Now sit down, my dear,” she commanded 
softly, coming up behind the girl and touching 
her gently on the arm. “ You are getting all 
tired out and having nothing to eat yourself. 
Every one is served and the waiters will look 
out for the rest. I have saved a place for you 
in the corner beside Louie and Ruth. So go 
now and rest and eat and enjoy yourself. You 
must not be the only one at your party who is 
neglected.” 

Nan gave her a grateful look and dashed off 
toward Louie and Ruth who were beckoning 
wildly to her to come. They had so much to 
tell that they almost forgot their plates in their 
eagerness to talk. 

“ Grace Ellis is just wild to come over here,” 
confided Louie. 

“ But Mary Brewster won’t let her. Mary 
just bosses Grace about till I think it’s positively 
disgraceful,” whispered Ruth. 

John Gardiner sauntered up. 

“ Got everything you want ?” he asked in a 
manful effort to be attentive. 


CHRISTMAS 


193 


“ No !" replied Nan, promptly, with a twinkle 
in her eye. “ I want a bicycle, please. Won't 
you get me one?" and she held out her plate 
as if to have it supplied with the desired 
article. 

The tall fellow laughed. “ With pleasure," 
he said, and took the plate and marched off 
with it. 

“O dear! I hadn't finished my salad !" la- 
mented Nan, looking regretfully after him. 

Louie managed to telegraph their dilemma to 
Harley Morris, who promptly responded to it 
by appearing with another plate of salad and a 
dish of sandwiches. He did not go away after 
Nan was served, but stayed on and led in the 
laugh when John Gardiner reappeared with a 
tiny ice cream bicycle daintily poised against a 
mound of jelly, which he presented to Nan 
with a low bow full of mock dignity, saying : 

“You have only to command and you are 
obeyed. Here is your wheel, and may it go as 
fast as if it were geared to a hundred." 

“ Thank you," replied Nan, accepting the 
joke and the plate at the same time. “ It’ll go 
fast enough, no fear of that. Eating is never 
up-hill work with me, and this has nothing to 
13 


194 


MISS WILDFIRE 


do but coast, you see,” and she swallowed the 
first mouthful down with a jolly laugh. 

“ Look over at Mary Brewster ! She’s trying 
her best to pretend she ignores us,” whispered 
Buth, but not so low but that the young fellows 
could hear. 

“ Is one who ignores an ignor — amus ?” asked 
Harley Morris, grinning broadly at his own 
witticism. 

“ Yes,” promptly answered Louie. “ And in 
this case especially so, for she doesn’t know 
what she’s losing.” 

There were more games after supper, and last 
of all came the jolliest part of the whole even- 
ing, an old-fashioned Virginia reel, Miss Blake 
and John Gardiner leading and the rest follow- 
ing with the heartiest of zest. In and out they 
tripped and up and down they ran till all were 
fairly out of breath. Then suddenly Miss 
Blake seized John’s hand, and away they sped 
toward the library, the rest following helter- 
skelter, where the Christmas tree stood all 
lighted and ablaze. 

“ All hands round !” shouted John, as they 
formed a ring and pranced gayly about the fra- 
grant tree. 



THEY FORMED A RING ABOUT THE FRAGRANT TREE 

(Page 194.) 






CHEISTMAS 


195 


Then up rose the governess’ cheery voice, 
singing the dear old Christmas carol that is 
always new : 

“ Hark ! the herald angels sing 
Glory to the new-born King ; 

Peace on earth and mercy mild ; 

God and sinners reconciled.” 

And the rest joined in and made the house 
re-echo with their hearty chorus : 

“Joyful all ye nations rise, 

Join the triumph of the skies ; 

With th’ angelic host proclaim, 

Christ is born in Bethlehem !” 

It seemed to melt the hearts of every one there, 
for the voices that presently said “ Good-night,” 
were full of peace and good-will, and even Mary 
Brewster’s had a ring of sincerity in it as she 
murmured : 

“ Good-night, Miss Blake ! Good-night, 
Nan. I’ve had a charming evening, and I hope 
we’ll know each other better after this.” 


CHAPTER XII 


SMALL CLOUDS 

It proved an ideal Christmas day. Clear 
and cold and spotlessly white, for the snow 
fell heavily all through the night, and cov- 
ered everything with a mantle of glistening 
frost. 

Nan looked out of her window, and gave a 
gasp of delight as she saw the shimmering, 
rime-covered trees, with the sunshine striking 
full upon them and bringing out sparks of light 
from every branch and twig. Whatever sounds 
there were in the streets came to her softened 
and mellowed over the snow-laden ground, and 
as she listened she felt a great wave of inward 
happiness surge into her heart and make the 
possibilities of life seem very different to her 
from anything she had ever dreamed of before. 
The snow, the sound of chiming Christmas 
bells, worked upon her, and made her feel 
that it would be easy to be good, and that her 
days ought all to be like this ; that she would 
196 


SMALL CLOUDS 


197 


make them so, serene and melodious, every one 
a festival. 

She heard Miss Blake stirring in the next 
room, and tore herself away from her dreams to 
begin the day well with a prompt appearance at 
the breakfast table. 

“It seems to me that if father were only 
here I wouldn’t have a thing left in the world 
to wish for,” she said happily, spearing a gold- 
brown scallop with her fork and eating it with 
relish. 

Miss Blake put down her coffee-cup just as 
she was carrying it to her lips, and her face 
wore the curious expression that Nan had so 
often noticed there and could never account for. 
But the girl was too busy with her own thoughts 
to regard it to-day, and the governess hastened 
to respond : 

“Then next year, please God, you will be 
quite entirely happy. And a year is not long 
to wait.” 

“No, indeed!” broke in Nan. “Why, I 
never knew the time to go as quickly as it does 
lately. It doesn’t seem any while at all since 
you came, and you’ve been here over two months. 
Just let’s think what we’ll do next Christmas, 


198 


MISS WILDFIRE 


when father is home. To begin with, I’m going 
down to the dock with Mr. Turner, so that when 
the ship comes in he’ll see me the first thing. 
Then we’ll come up here, and you and Delia will 
be waiting to welcome him at the door, and 
there’ll be decorations and things and — ” 

“ You forget, dear Nan,” Miss Blake said, 
gently interrupting her, “ that I shall not be 
here then.” 

The girl’s face fell and the light died out of 
her eyes. Then she brightened again suddenly. 

“ Oh, you must, you must ! Why, my father 
will want to see you. Of course you’ll be here. 
You’ll have to stay and meet him. You can 
surely do as much as that. You don’t know 
how dear my father is ! And so handsome and 
good ! Why, if you once saw him you couldn’t 
possibly be afraid. He’s simply the kindest 
man in the world, and when he smiles at you, 
you just love him — you can’t help it.” 

Miss Blake herself smiled faintly. “I am 
sure he is all you say, Nan,” she replied. “ But 
listen ! There go the first bells. We must 
hurry or we shall be late for church.” 

The girl rose and made her way rather slowly 
to the stairs. Somehow she felt less light- 


SMALL CLOUDS 


199 


hearted than she had done a few minutes 
before. What was it ? She could not under- 
stand. The world had seemed all joy and sun- 
shine to her a quarter of an hour since, and 
now there was a cloud over her heart that 
dimmed for her even the radiant prospect of 
her father’s return. 

“ I feel just like sitting down and haying a 
good cry — if I ever did such a thing,” she said 
to herself as she fastened on her new hat and 
tried to be glad that it was so becoming. 

But as she and Miss Blake walked along the • 
streets in the midst of a crowd of happy, chat- 
ting church-goers her spirits rose, and she 
nodded gayly to the Buckstone girls and Harley 
Morris, and broke into quite a ripple of laughter 
as John Gardiner overtook them and asked if 
the wheel he had brought her the night before 
had proved a good one. 

“ Oh, it was immense !” answered Nan, mer- 
rily. 

The services were beautiful, and Nan entered 
into them heart and soul, listening to the sermon 
with rapt attention and letting her fresh young 
voice swell out jubilantly in the dear, familiar 
carols as she had never done before. 


200 


MISS WILDFIRE 


As they went out of church Miss Blake said 
to her softly : 

“ You won’t mind going on without me, will 
you, Nan ? I have a little errand to do before 
I go home. Tell Delia I’ll be back in time for 
dinner.” 

“ But why can’t I go with you ?” demanded 
the girl. 

“ Because it — it wouldn’t be best. I will ex- 
plain it to you later. Now I must go. Tell 
Delia what I said. But if I should happen to be 
delayed don’t wait, and don’t — that is, tell Delia 
not to worry. Good-bye !” and she was around 
the corner before Nan could say another word. 

Buth Andrews joined her and they walked 
along together, falling at once into the easy terms 
of familiarity that had sprung up between them 
the night before. 

“ O Nan !” began Buth abruptly, “ you aren’t 
going to be such a goose as to back out of join- 
ing the skating club just because — well, because 
Mary Brewster’s such a prig? She isn’t the 
whole membership, not by a good deal, and the 
rest of us count on your coming. Why, you’ll 
be a tremendous acquisition. And the first 
meet is to-morrow. AVon’t you come?” 


SMALL CLOUDS 


201 


Nan hesitated. “ It isn’t because I’m a 
goose,” she said at length. “That is, I mean — oh, 
I can’t explain it, but really, Ruth, I’d rather 
not join. 1 wouldn’t have a good time myself, 
and I’d only be spoiling Mary Brewster’s 
pleasure. It’s no use. I know she’s not the 
whole club, and I really think the rest of you 
would like to have me, but somehow, knowing 
she didn’t want me, would spoil the whole thing 
and I’d just be miserable the entire time.” 

Ruth shook her head as if at the hopeless 
state of Nan’s obstinacy, but she broke in again 
immediately with a new suggestion : 

“ Besides, I don’t think you can be at all sure 
she feels that way now. Why, I myself heard 
her telling you and Miss Blake that she hoped 
you and she would know each other better after 
this.” 

“ Well, so we do,” said Nan, whimsically. “ I 
know now for a certainty that she doesn’t want 
me, and she knows that I won’t go where I’m 
not wanted, and if that isn’t getting acquainted 
with a vengeance I’d like to know what is.” 

Ruth laughed ruefully, but broke in, with 
sudden inspiration : “ O dear ! You’re as proud 
as a peacock, Nan Cutler. Louie will be dread- 


202 


MISS WILDFIRE 


fully disappointed, for she told me to tell you 
she counted on you to take her out. She’s never 
skated much, you know, and she’s wobbly on her 
ankles. She’s afraid of the teachers, and she 
doesn’t like to ask the boys, because they hate 
to have a girl hanging on to them, and the rest 
of us have as much as we can do to attend to our 
own affairs.” 

Nan’s face lit up with quick pleasure. “ Oh, 
if Louie needs me I’ll come in a jiffy. If you 
see her, won’t you tell her I’ll be only too happy 
to teach her everything I know ?” 

“ Then we’ll call for you at ten sharp to-mor- 
row morning,” announced the wily Ruth, and 
before Nan could change her mind she had 
slipped off and left her standing with her word 
given at her steps. 

“ Where’s Miss Blake ?” asked Delia, opening 
the door in answer to Nan’s ring and seeing her 
alone. 

“ Gone off somewhere on an errand or some- 
thing. I don’t know. She said she’d be home 
for dinner, but if she wasn’t, not to worry and 
not to wait.” 

Delia wrung her hands. “ O Nan, child, 
why did you let her away from you? She’s 


SMALL CLOUDS 


203 


gone to the Duffys ; I know she has. And they’ve 
scarlet fever in the house. The milkman told 
me so this morning at mass. She’s been going 
there for weeks, doing for them and carrying 
them money and things. The youngest of the 
children had been sick all the week, and now 
she’s down with the fever. If I’d only thought 
to tell her this morning ! But my head was so 
full of the breakfast and clearing up a bit after 
last night that I forgot. Oh, why did you let 
her away from you ?” 

“ How could I know ?” cried Nan, almost sav- 
agely. “ I never knew she went to such places ! 
What has she got to do with the Duffys, any- 
how ? Why hasn’t somebody stopped her from 
going, I should like to know ? She’s no business 
to run such risks. The first thing you know 
she’ll catch the fever, and then — and then — ” 

She turned her back on Delia, and the next 
moment was flying upstairs two steps at a time. 

“ What are you going to do, Nan ?” cried the 
woman. 

“ Go after her and bring her home !” shouted 
the girl. 

But Delia barred the way when she tried to 
come down again. “ You can’t do that, Nan,” 


204 


MISS WILDFIRE 


she protested. “ It would only make things 
worse. Just wait, and see if she comes home to 
dinner.” 

“ No ; I want to go now !” persisted the girl. 

“ But don’t you see it would only worry her ?” 
insisted Delia. 

Nan considered. “ Well, I’ll wait till dinner,” 
she admitted ; “ but if she isn’t here by then I’ll 
start.” 

She sat down by the parlor window and com- 
menced to watch. It seemed to her that every 
one in town came into sight but the one she was 
looking for with such curious anxiety. Sud- 
denly her heart gave a great leap. She flew to 
the front door and flung it wide. 

“ She’s come! She’s come!” she shouted to 
Delia, exultantly. 

“ Nan, Nan !” cried Miss Blake, hearing the 
joyous ring in her voice and seeing the glad 
light in her eyes. “ What is the matter? Has 
anything happened ? Has — has any one come ?” 
As she spoke her lips grew white. 

“Yes! You’re the matter! You’ve hap- 
pened! You’ve come! I tell you I’m glad! 
And don’t you ever go to those Duffys again, 
where there’s scarlet fever, and you can die of it !” 


SMALL CLOUDS 


205 


Miss Blake sank upon the hall-chair and held 
her hand to her heart. 

“Why, what’s the matter?” gasped Nan, 
frightened at the sight of her white face. 

“ Nothing, dear, nothing ! I was startled — 
that was all.” 

“ But who startled you ?” persisted the girl. 

“ Not you. It is all over now.” 

“ You see,” Nan hastened to explain, “ the 
milkman told Delia there was scarlet fever at 
the Duffys, and we thought you had gone there, 
and it scared us to death.” 

“ But I told you to tell Delia not to worry.” 

“ Much good telling would do ! Besides, you 
didn’t tell me not to worry. Of course, she’d 
worry anyhow and so would I. But is it true ? 
Have the Duffys got scarlet fever ?” 

Miss Blake hesitated. Then she said, truth- 
fully, “ Yes, they have, Nan. Little Mary Ellen 
has it. But you need not be afraid. I would 
not come back into this house without taking 
every precaution.” 

Nan cast on her an indignant look. “ And 
you think that’s what made us worry?” she 
asked, and turned on her heel and tramped up- 
stairs in high displeasure. But she had scarcely 


206 


MISS WILDFIRE 


got as far as the landing when she felt a hand 
upon her arm. 

“ Nan, forgive me. I didn’t think so — really. 
I know you had my safety in mind. But I have 
been very careful all along. And now I have a 
good nurse for the child, and I think she will 
pull through.” 

“ But promise me you won’t go there any 
more,” demanded Nan, sternly, only half molli- 
fied. 

“ I promise gladly. They don’t need me now, 
and it would be wicked to take an unnecessary 
risk.” 

“ Well, I should think so. Now, remem- 
ber, you’ve promised. O Delia! Is dinner 
ready ?” 

All through the meal Miss Blake was aware 
of Nan’s eyes fixed upon her in a peculiarly 
scrutinizing gaze. She was puzzled, but asked 
no questions, sure that, sooner or later, the girl 
would disclose the reason herself. At length it 
came. 

“ Does your head ache, Miss Blake ?” 

“ No, dear ; why ?” 

“ Because your cheeks are pretty red, and I 
thought you might not be feeling very well.” 


SMALL CLOUDS 


207 


“ Probably the brisk wind has made them so, 
for I feel very well indeed.” 

“ Oh !” 

But at twilight Miss Blake came upon her 
bending double over a volume of the Encyclo- 
paedia, and a glance showed her what article 
the girl was studying. It was that headed 
“ Scarlet fever.” 

The book was shut with a clap, and Nan 
stalked off to replace it in the book-case without 
a word. She came back in a moment, however, 
and stood before Miss Blake like a grim young 
Fate, her dark eyes full of care and worry. 

“ See here ! You’ve got to take something. 
There’s no use fooling with a sickness like that. 
Your cheeks are red, and I shouldn’t wonder 
but your throat is sore. When you came home 
you kind of went to pieces on the hall chair, 
and I guess your head is aching this minute. I 
don’t say you’ve got scarlet fever, but — it looks 
mighty like it, that’s all. Now don’t be scared. 
I’ll take care of you. I can, you know, if I put 
my mind to it.” 

Miss Blake dared not hug her, though it was 
precisely what she longed to do. She dared not 
laugh at her, either, for that would give lasting 


208 


MISS WILDFIRE 


offense when Nan was so deadly in earnest. 
What she did was to say brightly, but in quite 
as off-hand and matter-of-fact way as the girl 
herself had spoken : 

“ I’m sure you could. But you see I am per- 
fectly well. Honestly, I haven’t a pain nor an 
ache, and if my cheeks are still red it’s because 
the skin has been frost-nipped. I give you my 
word of honor I will go to a doctor if I feel the 
slightest symptom.” 

Her tone was so heartily sincere that Nan 
could not doubt her. She drew a long breath 
of relief, as if a heavy load had been lifted from 
her heart, and threw herelf upon the lounge 
with a contented sigh. 

“Just think,” she said. “Last night this 
time I didn’t even know I was going to have a 
party, and now it’s all over and done with, and 
Buth and Louie want me to go skating with 
them to-morrow. It’s been the happiest Christ- 
mas I ever spent, with the exception of the Duffy 
part, and I wish it could last forever.” 

“ I think some of it will,” replied Miss Blake 
in her gentle voice, as Delia came to light the 
lamps. 


CHAPTER XIII 


ON THE ICE 

There was a great crowd on tlie lake. It was 
perfect skating weather, and every one who had 
skates and could use them, had come to enjoy 
the advantage of the first real ice of the 
season. The banks were thronged with on- 
lookers, and it was a great inspiration to the ex- 
pert ones to know that their performances would 
he watched and commended by such an audience 
as this. 

“ Goodness, girls ! Did you ever see such a 
crush ?” asked Louie feverishly, hurrying her 
pace, as she, Nan, and Ruth neared the spot. 

“ There won’t be room to move,” announced 
Nan, adding with a laugh, “ much less to fall 
down in.” 

“ All the better for me ! I’ll put on my skates 
and let the crowd push me round. I’m never 
too sure of myself, but in a crush like this, one 
can’t go over, so I’m saved a heap of worry !” 
cried Ruth with a jolly laugh. 

14 


.209 


210 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Nan’s skates were on in a twinkling, and she 
longed with all her heart to be off and away. 
But the sight of poor Louie, struggling vainly 
with her refractory straps, kept her back. 

“ Oh, do hurry,” urged Ruth excitedly. 

“ Did you ever see such contrary things ?” 
gasped Louie, her cheeks crimson with cold, 
and the exertion of bending double in her fur 
jacket. 

“ Give them to me ; I’ll get them on in a 
jiffy,” and Nan was down on her knees and the 
skates secured before Louie had even time to 
thank her with a look. 

“ Now, do come on !” cried Ruth, fairly danc- 
ing with eagerness. 

“ Oh, wait ! wait ! Please wait !” pleaded 
Louie. “This is the first time I’ve been on 
the ice this year, and I feel so nervous I could 
scream.” 

John Gardiner spun past with a nod and a 
flourish, but a moment later wheeled about and 
came skimming up to where they were standing, 
saying briskly : 

“ Jolly day, isn’t it? Ice in first-rate shape, 
too. Too many people, but after a few of them 
get tired out it will be all right. Don’t suppose 


ON THE ICE 


211 


they’d care to stand aside and let us show them 
what skating is, eh, Nan ?” 

Nan laughed. “ Perhaps they wouldn’t like 
the figures we’d cut. I’m not sure I would my- 
self. Pride goes before a fall, and I’d rather be 
a bit humble and keep on my feet.” 

“ As though you’d ever take a tumble,” cried 
the young fellow with great scorn. “ Oh, I say, 
come along and let’s do a turn or two, as we did 
on the Steamer last year. Don’t you remember 
what a rousing cheer we got? Let’s try it 
again.” 

For an instant Nan’s blood leaped. She liked 
to do daring things, and she loved applause. 
John Gardiner was as much at home on his 
skates as she was on hers, and they were singu- 
larly at ease together. Moreover, way down in 
her heart was a sort of lurking pride at being 
especially chosen by this favorite among the 
“ fellows ” and being seen with him in his 
attractive suit and his graceful “ Norwegians ” 
that were the envy and admiration of all the 
other fellows in town. It certainly was a temp- 
tation, and for a moment Nan yielded to it. 
Then she looked at Louie’s anxious face and 
shook her head. 


212 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ I’m heaps obliged,” she said. “ But I guess 
I’d better not to-day. It wasn’t much harm at 
the Steamer, for there was no crowd there to 
speak of ; but here it’s so public, I’m afraid it 
wouldn’t look well.” 

John threw back his head and laughed. 

“ As if you cared how things look !” he cried, 
frankly. 

Nan’s cheeks reddened furiously. She looked 
down and drew a figure on the ice with the tip 
of her skate. Her confusion could not escape 
him, and he caught himself up instantly. “ I 
mean, you’ve always been so sensible, you know. 
You haven’t cared for tattle or nonsense. That’s 
what’s made us like you so. A fellow hasn’t 
had to be on the continual jump for fear your 
hat wasn’t on straight or your hair was coming 
down. You’re as plucky as a boy, and it’s 
like having another jolly, good fellow about 
when you’re around. You’re not going back 
on all that? You aren’t going to turn girly- 
girly? You aren’t going to be a Nancy, are 
you ?” 

She lifted her head with a jerk. “ No ; I’m 
going to stay plain Nan,” she retorted. “But 
I can’t go out with you this morning, John — at 


ON THE ICE 


213 


least not now. Later I may take a turn if 
you're willing." 

He saw that there was no shaking her reso- 
lution, and turned away with a frown and a 
sigh. 

“Very well. If you won't, you won't. I'll 
look you up by and by, though, and maybe 
you’ll have changed your mind by then," and 
he was off like a flash, his flying feet seeming 
scarcely to touch the ice, and his long, curved, 
glistening skates flashing back the sunlight 
from their dazzling nickel blades. 

Louie clutched Nan's arm. “ Oh, I'm so glad 
you didn't go !" she said, agitatedly. “ I'm all 
of a tremble, and I'm sure I’ll slip if you don't 
hold on to me." 

So Nan held on to her, and slowly piloted her 
this way and that, urging her gently to strike 
out alone, and patiently waiting until she had 
the courage to try. Ruth darted hither and 
thither, minding it as little when she went down 
herself as when she was the cause of others 
doing so, and always skating with an awkward 
energy that was refreshing to behold. 

“ O Nan !" panted Louie, “ how did you 
learn?" 


214 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ By getting up whenever I fell down/’ de- 
clared Nan, succinctly. 

Ruth came toward them with arms flying like 
windmills. 

“ O girls I” she gasped ; but just here her feet 
went from under her, and she sat squarely upon 
the ice with a great plump. “ O girls !” she 
repeated, not a bit abashed and without trying 
to get up, “ Mary Brewster and Grace are over 
there, and they just asked John to take them 
out — at least Mary did — and he said he was ever 
so sorry, but his 4 card was full/ and they are 
simply furious.” 

“ Get up!” commanded Nan, with lips that 
would twitch in spite of her efforts to control 
them. “ You’ll catch your death of cold!” 

Ruth grasped her outstretched hand and 
struggled to her feet. “ How are you getting 
on, Lu ?” she asked, shaking the snow from her 
skirts. 

“ I think I’m doing a little better. Don’t you, 
Nan ?” appealed Louie, tremulously. 

“ Why, yes. You’ll skate as well as any one 
after you’ve once gained courage,” Nan re- 
turned cheerfully, and took up the slow, tedious 
task again of steering her laboriously this way 


ON THE ICE 


215 


and that, Louie meanwhile clinging to her arm 
and uttering little panic-stricken shrieks that 
irritated Nan beyond measure. No one could 
conceive how hard it was for the girl not to de- 
sert her clinging companion. She knew in her 
heart that Louie would never master the knack 
unless she were made to rely upon herself. As 
long as she could depend on Nan’s support she 
would not make any effort to use her own energy, 
nor would she exert her will-power to force her- 
self to strike out alone. The ice was in perfect 
condition to-day, but it would not long remain 
so with such a crowd cutting it to pieces, and 
the sun already thawing the j>owdered snow and 
threatening to do more damage to-morrow. If 
Nan lost her chance now she might not have 
another so good in weeks to come, for the weather 
was always uncertain and the holidays were 
short. Everything seemed to urge her to break 
loose from her self-imposed martyrdom and go 
her way rejoicing ; the crisp air that sang in her 
ears and filled her with a sense of glorious ex- 
hilaration ; the shimmering sunlight on the ice 
that seemed to scud before her and invite her 
to join in the race ; the knowledge that she was 
in reality doing Louie a doubtful service by 


216 


MISS WILDFIRE 


staying beside her, and, last of all, the look of 
disappointment in John’s eyes as he shot past 
them at intervals, and saw that Nan was not 
yet ready to capitulate. A sort of war with 
herself was waging in her mind ; her sense of 
duty against her preferences ; her long estab- 
lished habits against her newly found resolu- 
tions. She had resolved to be like other girls 
in the future. It was like headlong, impulsive 
Nan to make a resolve like this, and never stop 
to realize that it was only the exaggeration of 
herself that proved objectionable ; that it would 
be as impossible for her to be sedate and silent 
and serious as for a dashing dandelion to become 
a dainty buttercup. 

To her it seemed as if Miss Blake and the rest 
were demanding of her just such a metamor- 
phosis and she had been trying— she really had 
— to recast herself in the mold she thought they 
exacted. And now here came John Gardiner, 
surely the nicest and most mannerly young fel- 
low she knew, and the one whom even Miss 
Blake was pleased to call “ a perfect gentleman ” 
— here came John Gardiner, and told her that 
her despised characteristics were precisely the 
ones that made her valuable. She shook her 



“ you’ve made a pretty good beginning,” 

(Page 217.) 


SAID NAN 








ON THE ICE 217 

head. It was no use ; she could not under- 
stand. 

“ O Nan !” cried Louie, shuffling along clum- 
sily by her side and clutching her arm in des- 
peration. “ Won’t you please get me over to 
the shore ? I’m all tired out. I guess I’ll go in 
for a hit and warm up and get rested, and then 
I’ll come out again, may be, and take another try.” 

Nan assented with alacrity. 

“ You’ve made a pretty good beginning,” she 
said with new encouragement in her voice. 

“ Oh, it’s always the same !” wailed Louie. 
“ Year before last I got so I could do it quite re- 
spectably, and then last year I had to learn all 
over again. I really thought I’d pick it up 
where I left off this year, but you see how it is ! 
The very sight of the ice when I’m on skates 
makes me quake.” 

“ Just force yourself to do it and you’ll be 
surprised to see how soon you’ll he skimming 
all over creation,” advised Nan, as she unfas- 
tened her friend’s skates and saw her start stiffly 
up the path to the Lodge. 

Her heart gave a bound as she realized that 
she was at last alone and untrammeled. She 
pulled her Russian cap well into place, thrust 


218 


MISS WILDFIRE 


her hands deep into her pockets, and set out for 
the middle of the lake, her lithe young body 
swaying gently forward as she was carried this 
way and that by her gliding feet. She looked 
about for John, but he was nowhere to be seen, 
and she concluded that he had given uj) ex- 
pecting her and had either gone home or joined 
other friends. Ruth was forging about after 
her own peculiar fashion, getting in every one’s 
way and under every one’s feet, and enjoying it 
all immensely. She was perfectly self-reliant, 
and Nan did not feel that there was any neces- 
sity of offering assistance or even companionship 
to such a self-sufficient, resolute maiden, and so 
she set about enjoying her independence with a 
clear conscience. A moment later she had for- 
gotten everything but the keen delight of the 
delicious exercise ; the fresh current of air upon 
her cheeks ; the sense of flashing through space 
without any appreciable effort; the knowledge 
of her mastery of the art. She had not a 
shadow of fear. Instead, she felt a sort of wild 
exultation in her own daring, and set about 
doing difficult feats with an added delight in the 
very risk of the thing. Suddenly a shadow shot 
toward her from the back, caught her by the arm 


ON THE ICE 


219 


and went flying forward, suiting his rhythm to 
hers in an instant. 

“Oh! heyo, John! I thought you’d gone 
home !” said Nan. 

“ Not a bit of it. Think I’d leave the ice 
when it’s as prime as this? Not much. What 
under the canopy have you been about all this 
time? Toting Lou Hawes around when you 
ought to be making the best of the rarest chance 
you’ll get this season, maybe ?” 

“Oh, that’s all right,” rejoined Nan in a 
matter-of-fact way. “I liked to do it — for a 
change. And she’s a little timid.” 

“Well now, you’re free, let’s have a couple 
of extra good turns just to make up for lost 
time,” and he took her hand and started off 
on a fine, free swing, Nan gliding beside him in 
such perfect accord that it seemed as if one im- 
pulse moved them both. They swung apart re- 
joined, and swung apart again. Then, drop- 
ping her hand John gave a curving glide to the 
right which took him a pace ahead of her, and 
she, repeating his movement, but toward the 
left, passed easily before him on the other side, 
so on and on in a sort of progressive chain, until 
at a sign they sped backward, reversing the 


220 


MISS WILDFIRE 


order in which they had come, and readied the 
starting point and circled round it, clasping 
crossed hands and chatting gayly the while. 

John saw that they had already attracted some 
attention, and it only made his pulses quicken. 
He also saw that Nan was oblivious to every- 
thing, but the mere delight of what she was 
doing, and he did not think it worth while to 
remind her that this was not the Steamer, and 
that if she wished to be inconspicuous, as she 
had suggested, she would better limit herself 
strictly to a commonplace gait. Instead he bent 
toward her, and said in a quick, low undertone, 
“ I’ll bet a quarter you’ve forgotten how to cut 
your name.” 

“Oh, have I?” cried Nan, the spur pricking 
sharply at her pride. “ Want to see me do it ?” 
and off she went accordingly, accomplishing the 
difficult figure without a thought of hesitation, 
and returning to his side laughing and trium- 
phant. 

“ Now the spiral ! Forward ! Left foot first ! 
Now right ! Combination !” 

John gave the directions in a sort of tense 
whisper. He was mortally afraid Nan would 
become conscious, and see what was going on 


ON THE ICE 


221 


about her. But he might have spared himself 
the trouble. She was absolutely blind to the 
crowd that had gathered about them, and all 
the commendation she was aware of was that 
which he gave her in a murmured “ Good !” or 
“ Fine !” 

A wide circle had been cleared for them, and 
in it they and one or two other hardy souls 
were exhibiting their prowess, while the throng 
outside whispered and applauded and made com- 
ments on the different skaters and their re- 
spective skill and grace. 

“ There! That’s the serpentine he’s doing 
now ! Isn’t it pretty ?” 

“ It must be frightfully hard to go backward 
like that !” 

“ I should think he’d fall on his head !” 

“ Look ! See ! She’s starting off again ! 
Doesn’t she do it well ?” 

“ Who is she, anyway ?” 

Nan had completed her figure, and was wait- 
ing at the edge of the circle for John to finish 
his and to come and join her. She stood well 
back, so that she might not interfere with the 
others, and thus it was that she was waked from 
her trance with an abrupt shock by the sound 


222 


MISS WILDFIRE 


of two whispering voices, seeming almost at her 
ear, their murmur carried so in the chill, crystal 
air. 

“ Didn’t I tell you she was a bold thing ?” 

“ Sh ! She’ll hear you ! She’s right in front 
of us — only those men between.” 

“ No she won’t, either. We’re too far away. 
Didn’t I tell you Lu’s and Ruth’s friendship 
was for one night only ? I knew well enough 
why Lu asked her to come. Any one could see 
through that. She wants to learn how to skate, 
and this was as ready a way as any to be taught, 
and she jumps , at the chance.” 

“ Oh, do hush! She’ll hear!” 

“ Don’t care if she does. I don’t know what 
your opinion is, but mine is that it’s positively 
brazen of her to do such things before a crowd 
like this. Dragging John Gardiner into it, too ! 
It’s a disgrace !” 

“ Sh, please ! There he comes !” 

Nan pulled herself wearily forward a step or 
two to meet him. 

“ I say, what’s up ? What’s the matter ?” he 
demanded anxiously, looking into her face and 
seeing the change it had undergone. 

“ Nothing ! Nothing !” she reassured him 


ON THE ICE 


223 


quickly. “ Fm tired, that’s all. And I didn’t 
realize these people were watching us. Let’s 
get out of this. I hate the way they stare. I 
want to go home.” 

J ohn took her by the elbow and steered for 
the bank. 

“ Won’t you find Grace and Louie first ? You 
came with them, didn’t you? They won’t know 
what’s become of you.” 

“ I don’t care ! I want to go home !” she re- 
peated irritably. 

They sped forward silently, and in a moment 
had reached the shore. Nan trembled so as she 
tried to unfasten her skates that John pushed 
her hands aside and made her submit to haying 
him assist her. 

“ You’ve caught cold !” he said remorsefully, 
“ I was a brute to keep urging you on. But I 
didn’t dream you were tired. You looked so 
bright and well.” 

“ I’m not tired. I haven’t caught cold !” 
said Nan. “ Don’t bother about me, please. 
Go back and finish up your skate !” 

“ Thank you kindly, ma’am,” rejoined he, 
removing his own skates. “ But I’ve finished it 
up already,” and he grasped her arm and 


224 


MISS WILDFIRE 


tramped her off in the direction of the Park en- 
trance with vigorous steps. 

“ Won’t Lou and Ruth wonder ?” he ventured 
again after a moment of silence. 

“No! They don’t care!” cried Nan, dis- 
mally. 

“ The mischief they don’t !” and John gave 
vent to an exclamation of disbelief. “Why, 
Ruth was only telling me half an hour ago how 
good and generous you were, and Louie caught 
me in the Lodge and went into regular spasms 
over you. You’re the patientest, the generousest 
— everythingelse-est girl she knows. I had 
actually to tear myself away from her raptures 
when I saw that you were free of her and could 
take a turn with me.” 

Nan shook her head. 

“No, you’re wrong, John!” she said hope- 
lessly. “ They don’t like me. None of them 
do. It’s no use. I thought Christmas eve I 
might make them, perhaps — but I give it up. 
I’m too — different !” 

“ Now, see here, Nan !” cried John, stopping 
suddenly in the middle of the path and con- 
fronting her squarely, “ this change of base has 
come on you all of a sudden. You weren’t in 


ON THE ICE 


225 


such a state before. You’ve seen something or 
heard something that’s given you a turn. Say 
now, haven’t you, honestly ?” 

Nan gulped and nodded grimly. 

“ I thought so. Well, now, you say you’re 
different from the other girls, and so you are in 
most ways, but just at present you’re doing the 
silliest trick I know. Going off by yourself 
and making people miserable all around. Do 
you know what a fellow would do in your place ? 
Why, he’d go straight to the man he’d heard or 
seen back-biting him and he’d make him come 
out fair and square and own up — or shut up. 
‘ You pays your money and you takes your 
choice.’ That’s what a fellow would do. But 
girls prefer to be martyrs and go about ‘ letting 
concealment prey upon their damask cheeks’ 
and all that namby-pamby nonsense. Pshaw ! 
I wouldn’t give a rush for a girl’s courage. It’s 
all humbug.” 

“ It isn’t any such thing !” cried Nan, hasten- 
ing to defend her sex. “ It isn’t because I’m 
afraid that I don’t go straight up to the — the 
person. It’s because I have too much pride. I 
wouldn’t demean myself by letting her know I 
care.” 


15 


226 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Oli, fudge ! Pride ! I like that ! Care ? 
Why, whoever she is, she can see that, anyhow, 
with half an eye. It’s as plain as preaching. 
You came with Lu and Ruth, and were as gay 
and jolly as could he. Then, all of a sudden, 
you turn grumpy and want to go home, and say 
Lu and Ruth don’t like you. The explanation 
of that is simple enough. You’ve heard some 
one saying something about you, or pretending 
to repeat something Lu and Ruth have said 
about you. There ! Now haven’t I hit the nail 
on the head?” 

Nan made no reply. 

“I wager I have, though,” continued the 
young fellow, watching her closely, and drawing 
many of his conclusions from the evidence of 
her tell-tale face. “ And I’d be ashamed, even 
if I were a girl, to let myself be worried by a 
thing like that. Besides, it isn’t fair to Lu and 
Ruth. You ought to give them a chance to set 
themselves straight. You’ve no right to believe 
things of them till you’ve their own word for it 
that it’s true. Give them a chance, and if they 
act queer you can throw them over.” 

“ But I can’t ask them,” burst out Nan. “ It 
wasn’t anything they said. It was about the 


ON THE ICE 


227 


way they feel, and if I give them a chance they 
may throw me over.” 

John laughed. “True for you. They may. 
But anyway, you’d have done the just thing. 
Whatever they did to you, you’d have played 
fair.” 

Nan thought a moment. Suddenly she turned 
on her heel and began to retrace her steps. “ I’m 
going back,” she said, stoutly, “ to find Lu and 
Ruth ! and — and — give them that chance.” 

“ There ! Now you’re behaving like an 
honest man,” announced John, with gusto. 
“ One can’t afford to be too perpendicular.” 

But before they had taken a dozen steps they 
came upon the two girls themselves, running 
breathlessly toward them. 

“ O Nan !” panted Louie. “ What is the mat- 
ter? Are you sick? Are you hurt? We 
couldn’t find you anywhere !” 

“ We looked all over and got terribly nervous, 
and at last Mary Brewster told us you had gone 
home,” Ruth broke in, gaspingly. 

“ She said John had taken you, and that you 
kind of walked as if you were dizzy or some- 
thing. We’ve run all the way ! Do say, are 
you sick ?” pleaded Louie, 


228 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“Or hurt?” articulated Ruth. 

John and Nan regarded each other solemnly 
for a moment. Then they both broke into a 
peal of laughter. Nan was the first to speak. 

“No, I’m not sick and I wasn’t hurt — the 
way you mean. I was a goose — that’s all. I 
want you to forgive me.” 

“ What for ?” demanded the girls, in a breath. 

“ Why, for — for — making you run after me,” 
replied Nan. 


CHAPTER XIV 


CHANGES 

“ Let’s go back after luncheon, ” suggested 
Ruth as they tramped homeward. 

The others assented heartily enough, and 
Nan was so eager to return to her sport that 
she did not wait for Delia to let her in at the 
upper door, but burst through the basement 
way, and ran against Miss Blake in the lower 
hall. 

“ Oh, excuse me !” she panted. “ We’ve had 
a glorious time. We’re going out again. Please 
may I have a bite of something quick, so I can 
run ? We want to make the most of the day- 
light, and Lu can almost go alone.” 

“ Certainly. Delia has everything on the 
table. But won’t you want to run upstairs and 
give your face and hands a little scrub ?” 

Nan’s forehead wrinkled, and she was on the 
point of uttering an exclamation of disgust. 
But she caught herself up, and pressing her 
lips together hard, flew upstairs without a word 

229 


230 


MISS WILDFIRE 


of protest. She finished her luncheon in mar- 
velously quick time. 

“ If you wish to go you may be excused,” 
her companion announced, as the last crumb 
was swallowed. A gleam of surprise lit upon 
Nan’s face. 

“ Thank you,” she said, and went her v 7 ay 
feeling more contented with herself than she had 
done in many a long day. 

It was late when she returned, and not find- 
ing Miss Blake in any other part of the house, 
she went to the governess’ room and tapped on 
the door for admittance, a thing she had never 
done before, from pure perversity and a deter- 
mination not to “ let any person suppose she 
cared to see them when she didn’t have to.” 

Miss Blake herself opened the door to her 
and invited her to “ step into her parlor,” most 
cordially, adding : 

“ I’m just having my afternoon tea. Won’t 
you take a cup with me ?” 

At first Nan could scarcely find voice to 
reply, so strange did she feel in this altered 
room. When she had last seen it it was bare 
and cold and comfortless, and now — 

The windows were draped with inner curtains 


CHANGES 


231 


of dainty swiss. Hangings of some soft, pale 
green stuff liung before them and in all the 
doorways. The bed was shoved into a far corner 
of the room, and where it had once been, against 
the wall, a low bookcase now stood, displaying 
rows of tempting books upon its well-laden 
shelves, and above them delicate bits of bric- 
a-brac. A rug covered the centre of the floor. 
The ugly mantel-shelf was hidden from sight by 
an Oriental scarf, and upon it stood all manner 
of odd and curious trifles. The shabby lounge 
was covered by a fine old rug and piled with 
cushions, while beside it stood the quaint stand 
and brass tray that Nan had feasted from when 
her foot was lame ; only now it held a brightly 
burnished alcohol kettle, out of which steam was 
issuing in the most hospitable fashion possible. 
Here also were dainty cups and saucers, and here 
it was that Miss Blake brewed her tea after she 
had led her guest to a chair and helped her re- 
move her cap and coat with all the solicitude of 
a veritable hostess. 

“ Well, how has the day gone ?” asked she, 
trying not to betray her amusement at Nan’s 
obvious amazement. 

“ Oh, finely ! We had a jolly good time. 


232 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Lu can go alone now. John and I took her out 
and simply made her skate. Ruth goes floun- 
dering about like a seal, and every one laughs 
at her, but she’s so good-natured she doesn’t 
mind, and one can’t help liking her. Such a 
funny thing happened. 

“ We were standing still for a minute waiting 
for Lu to catch her breath, and all at once we 
saw Ruth coming galloping toward us in her 
ridiculous way. A big, fat man was skating in 
the other direction, hut nowhere near her, and 
we didn’t notice him particularly till she veered 
suddenly off and crashed straight into him, 
without any excuse at all, just hurled into him 
plump, and howled him square over. It was 
the most deliberate thing I ever saw. She had 
gone out of her way to do it, hut, of course, she 
didn’t mean to. They both went crashing 
down with such a thump I thought it would 
break the ice, and as he went over he said : 
‘ Good gracious !’ in the mildest, funniest 
voice you ever heard. John hurried off and 
helped him up, and I got Ruth on her feet 
again, all covered with snow, and as mortified 
as could be, but choking with laughter. The 
man looked worried, and we asked him if he was 


CHANGES 


233 


hurt. He said, 4 No ! Oh, no indeed !’ and 
then he turned to Ruth with the most embar- 
rassed sort of apologetic smile — -just as if he had 
been to blame. 

“ ‘ I’m so sorry !’ he stammered. ‘ It is the 
strangest thing how it could have occurred. I 
thought you were over there. I really thought 
I was in no one’s way. Oh, would you mind 
telling me — a — what I said when I — a — fell ?’ 

“ Lu was swallowing her pocket-handkerchief 
to keep from laughing out, and I know I was 
grinning. 

“ Why, I think you said, ‘ Good gracious !’ 
said Ruth, shakily. 

“ ‘ Oh, thank, you !’ the man cried, looking 
ever so much relieved. ‘I thought I said ‘ Good 
gracious,’ but I — -I wasn’t sure. I’m very glad !’ 
and he shambled off as if he were lamed for life, 
poor thing, while Ruth and Lu and John and 
I simply rocked with laughter. And now when 
anything happens John says ‘ Good gracious !’ 
in the mildest tone, and then goes on, ‘ What 
did I say ? Oh, thank you. I thought I said 
“ Good gracious,” but I wasn’t sure!”’ and Nan 
broke into a chuckle at the mere recollection of 
the thing. Miss Blake laughed in sympathy, 


234 


MISS WILDFIRE 


and slie and Nan drank their tea and nibbled 
their wafers in the most amicable fashion pos- 
sible, talking over, not alone the pleasant ex- 
periences, but also that which had threatened 
to spoil Nan’s day, the remembrance of which 
made her shudder even now. 

She repeated the incident to Miss Blake, con- 
cluding with : 

“ I don’t care what they think !” 

“ John was right,” declared Miss Blake, 
“ and you did what was brave and just. But 
don’t give up trying to win Mary’s and Grace’s 
good opinion, Nan. I want you to be respected 
and loved, and you can be, if you will only be 
as true to yourself as you are to your friends. 
You were not satisfied to let Lu and Butli rest 
under a false accusation this morning. Neither 
should you be satisfied to let yourself. Prove 
to Mary and Grace that you are neither bold 
nor brazen. Force them to see that you are 
kind and lovable and courageous.” 

“ Oh, dear ! How can I?” despaired Nan. 

“ Why, simply by being so,” declared Miss 
Blake. 

Nan fell silent, and then, when Miss Blake 
was just beginning to wonder what new T caprice 


CHANGES 


235 


her guest had fallen victim to, she broke out 
impetuously : 

“ Oh, I say Miss Blake ! it is just festive in 
here. I never saw anything that began to he so 
pretty.” 

It was genuine praise, and Miss Blake really 
flushed with gratification as she replied : 

“ Thank you, Nan. I think myself it is 
cozy, and I am very happy if my little nest 
pleases you. It is a very simple one. I am 
my own upholsterer and my own decorator, so 
I have a special reason to value any praise of 
my small domain. You must come often if 
you like it here, for I love to play hostess to so 
appreciative a guest !” 

Nan settled back among the cushions with a 
contented sigh. 

“ I wish,” she said presently, “ I wish the rest 
of the house looked this way.” 

“ If you really would like to make some 
changes, Nan, I will do my best. What there is 
in the house is good and substantial, and with a 
little alteration could be made to serve very 
well.” 

Nan looked up eagerly. 

“ Oh, let’s try and fix up the house, for father’s 


236 


MISS WILDFIRE 


coming home. Mr. Turner will give us some 
money to pay for repairs, I guess — he always 
does when pipes burst and things. Won’t it be 
jolly to watch father’s face when he comes in 
and sees it all so pretty here ? Poor old papa ! 
Mr. Turner says he may come in the fall, and 
so we’ll have all the summer to work and plan 
in, and then when he’s here, won’t we have a 
jubilation, Miss Blake?” 

The governess stooped to pick up a pin, and 
she did not reply. Then she rose and carried 
the tea-cups and plates to the washstand, where 
she began rinsing them carefully. 

“ When your father comes home I shall not 
be here, you know,” she said simply ; “ but you 
will be very happy together, and I am sure he 
would enjoy a pretty home !” 

The radiance in Nan’s face faded suddenly. 
The same dull pain was at her heart that she 
had felt and shrunk from yesterday. Only now 
it did not pass away, and all the evening she 
seemed to be haunted by a peculiar sense of im- 
pending misfortune. It was as though she had 
been reminded of some unhappy occasion that 
she had tried to forget. Every once in a while 
after that, when she saw Miss Blake laboriously 


CHANGES 


237 


toiling to renovate some dilapidated piece of 
furniture, or heard lier discussing with Delia the 
remaining possibilities of this carpet or that 
pair of curtains, she felt an almost uncontrol- 
lable desire to cry out — so sharp was the sudden 
sting of regret that bit at her conscience — and 
so keen the pain that pierced her heart. 

Miss Blake left her to enjoy her holidays in 
perfect freedom, but as soon as they were spent 
the books were brought out again and lessons 
resumed as strictly as if the discipline of an 
entire school depended on it. 

But study had grown to have no terrors for 
Nan, and she was not at all aware of the thorough 
course she was being put through, because 
it was all accomplished in such an unobtrusive 
fashion. Miss Blake had a system of her own 
which she j)ut into practice, and the girl fol- 
lowed her unconsciously with an interest that 
showed how wise an one it was. Latin and 
mathematics proved the most troublesome of the 
tasks, and would perhaps have led to some 
serious differences of opinion if Miss Blake had 
not confessed herself at the start “ rusty ” in 
these particular branches and suggested that 
they “ go over them together,” 


238 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“I really never was very strong in either of 
them, and it will do me good to review,” she ex- 
plained. 

So, spurred on by the thought of competition, 
Nan did her best ; went through the declensions 
with a rush, and quite outstripped her fellow- 
student in the matter of algebraic problems. 

History was always simple enough with Miss 
Blake to make it seem like the most dramatic of 
romances, and the girl discovered a fresh in- 
terest in the Roman heroes when the scenes of 
their exploits was so graphically described to 
her, and when she could build up the ancient 
city for herself by the aid of Miss Blake’s ad- 
mirable photographs of the present. 

“ It seems to me you have done more travel- 
ing than any one I ever knew !” exclaimed the 
girl for the hundredth time one day. 

“ It has been all I had to do,” rejoined the 
governess wistfully. “ For many, many years I 
have had nothing else. But now all that 
is changed, and — as it is half-past one, and I 
hear Delia coming up to announce luncheon, 
I’ll dismiss my class, and declare school over for 
to-day.” 

“ That is always the way,” mused Nan, “ when- 


CHANGES 


239 


ever I refer to her and try to start her telling 
about herself she veers off and talks of some- 
thing else. Queer about her traveling so much, 
though. I wonder how she came to do it— 
when she’s so poor. She never said straight out 
she was some one’s companion, and I don’t 
think a governess would be taken all over the 
globe like that.” 

While the ice lasted Nan had many a good 
hour upon her skates. Miss Blake too donned 
hers, and at these times the tables were turned 
and Nan became the patient teacher, the gov- 
erness the obedient pupil. 

“ My ankles are weak,” pleaded the pupil in 
apology for persistent failure. 

“ Exercise ’em and they’ll grow strong !” de- 
clared the intrepid instructor in peremptory 
tones. 

“ It’s no use, I can’t reverse, Nan !” 

“ Pooh ! ‘ Never say can’t till you’ve proved 

that the task is impossible,’ ” quoted Nan, with 
a gleam of mischief in her eyes. 

“ You’re real mean, so there!” responded 
Miss Blake in return with such a good imitation 
of her own querulous tone that the girl burst 
into a shout of laughter, and the two started off 


240 


MISS WILDFIRE 


again to make another, perhaps futile attempt, 
at the difficult feat, until, by the latter part 
of the winter, Miss Blake acquitted herself so 
creditably that her teacher regarded her with 
pardonable pride, and declared, 

“ There, now ! You ought to be ‘ all primmed 
up with majestick pride.’ You skate as well as 
anybody now, and you’ve got rid of every par- 
ticle of nervousness.” 

There were many things beside skating that 
the governess set heioolf to accomplish during 
these months, and Mrs. Newton often took her 
to task for working so hard. 

“ You are beginning to look completely 
fagged. Do let the house go. What do you 
fret over it for? If Nan wants alterations, why 
not let Mr. Turner engage competent people to 
do the work ? You have responsibility enough 
without planning and overseeing all these im- 
provements.” 

But Miss Blake only shook her obstinate little 
head and continued to discuss ways and means 
with Mr. Turner and Delia and to direct the 
workmen, who presently took possession of the 
house, and made it seem like a Bedlam into 
which order could never be restored. 


CHANGES 


241 


“ Oil, that’s fine !” cried Nan, clapping her 
hands when she heard of the governess’ plans. 
“ That hall closet was no good anyhow. Delia 
only kept her brooms and dust-cloths there, and 
it’s just the place for a dumb-waiter. But if 
we turn the library into a dining-room, what are 
yon going to do wjtji the books ?” 

“ The best of them can be put on low shelves 
along the parlor walls, and we’ll take the rest up- 
stairs and make a sort of cozy study of the front 
room for your father.” 

“ Splendid !” cried Nan. 

For weeks the place was in a turmoil. 
Carpets were taken up, some of them never to 
go down again, curtains were unhung, cleaned 
and folded carefully away, and when the coast 
was clear the work of remodelling began in 
earnest. 

It seemed to Nan as if it would never come to 
an end, but little by little things began to assume 
a more j)romising aspect, and at length the last 
lingering workman dragged himself reluctantly 
away, and then Delia descended upon the jfiace, 
armed with scrubbing-brush and pail, and 
waged a mighty war upon every spot of dust or 
paint anywhere to be found. 

16 


242 


MISS WILDFIRE 


The parlor had been freshly papered, and its 
walls no longer frowned gloomily down upon 
the inoffensive guest, but seemed to cast a faint, 
rosy smile at the redecorated hall and the new 
dining-room beyond. Miss Blake stripped 
away every vestige of tarletan, and let the fine 
oil paintings display themselves unveiled to the 
public eye. 

“We can have the windows screened if we 
are afraid of flies, ” she said as she folded away 
the unsightly shrouds, and Delia echoed, “Why, 
so we can !” in the promptest assent, and as 
though it had been her own idea all along. 

The draperies were of the simplest sort, but 
Nan thought them perfection. She fairly 
danced with delight as she fancied her father’s 
face when he should see his altered home. He 
would never recognize in this attractive, tasteful 
room the old, gloomy parlor of former days. 

The furniture was drawn out of its martial 
line and placed here and there in inviting posi- 
tions by loving, artful hands. Various pieces 
were banished altogether, and where this chair 
or that had grown shabby Miss Blake renewed 
its usefulness by covering it over with some odd 
material that harmonized nicely with the old- 


CHANGES 


243 


fashioned shape of the frame and the tone of 
the rest of the room. 

A simple fireplace had been set in the blind 
chimney-piece, in which were placed grandma’s 
graceful andirons, buried so long in the attic 
that Nan had never seen them, while the old 
mantel-shelf in the library was torn out alto- 
gether and a stately new one put in its stead, 
and in this too was a place for wood and 
fire-dogs. The two French windows leading 
into the glass extension were transformed into 
doorways, and gave pleasant vistas of a bloom- 
ing conservatory, into which the south sun 
shone genially the best part of the day. 

Louie and Ruth came in on a special visit of 
inspection when the work was all completed, 
and it did not detract from Nan’s enjoyment 
to hear them say that they thought the house 
one of the prettiest they had ever seen. 

“ It has such a fresh, comfortable look,” ex- 
claimed Louie. 

“ As if you lived in every part of it and en- 
joyed it yourself, and wanted other people to 
enjoy it with you,” added Ruth. 

“ So we do,” declared Nan ; “ that’s just what 
we do. Isn’t it, Miss Blake ?” 


244 


MISS WILDFIRE 


And Miss Blake nodded a smiling assent, 
though she knew quite well that until very 
lately Nan had never thought about the matter 
at all. She had taken her home for granted, 
and it never had occurred to her to try to im- 
prove it in any wise. But the governess had 
had more in mind than the mere indulging of 
the girl’s fancy when she set about rearranging 
the place. As in most of her characteristic 
schemes there was “ a method in her madness.” 
Nan soon discovered that a dainty home brought 
its obligations with it. 

“ Do you notice,” said Miss Blake one day, 
“ that since the household arrangements have 
been altered there has been a good deal more 
work to be done ?” 

“ Why, I don’t know,” rejoined Nan ; “why 
should there be ?” 

“ Because all these bits of bric-a-brac we have 
set about must be dusted every day, and because 
throwing the parlor open, as we do, makes an- 
other room to look after. Then the plants in 
the conservatory should be carefully tended if 
we want them to live, and Delia has to take 
double the steps she used to take when we 
ate in the basement. Beally, Nan, as things 


CHANGES 245 

stand, I feel the work is going to be too hard 
for her.” 

“ Dear me ! Whatever are we going to do ?” 
demanded the girl anxiously. 

“ Simply, she must have help.” 

“ You mean another servant ?” 

“ No, not that. I cannot increase the house- 
hold expenses in such a way without your 
father’s knowledge and approval. What we 
have done now is almost more than I dare think 
of. My only comfort is that it has come out of 
your money.” 

Nan gave a start. “ My money !” she ex- 
claimed. “Why, I never knew I had any. 
Goodness ! tell me about it.” 

“ There is nothing to tell. Simply, some one 
who owed your mother a debt and was unable to 
discharge it during her lifetime, has paid in a 
certain part of it to Mr. Turner for your benefit 
— or so he tells me. Both he and I thought it 
wise to use it in this way. The house is virtu- 
ally yours, and unless you improve it from time 
to time it will decrease in value. We both felt 
that since you wished it, and since it might be 
looked upon in the light of protecting your 
property, we might safely lay out the money as 


246 


MISS WILDFIRE 


we have done without first consulting your 
father.” 

“Oh, I’m glad,” cried Nan. “ I didn’t want 
him to know. It’ll be all the bigger surprise to 
him when he comes home. But what are we 
going to do about Delia?” 

“ That is what I want you to tell me,” 
rejoined Miss Blake. 

“ I ?” queried the girl. “ Why, I’m sure I 
don’t know what we can do, unless we hire an- 
other girl — and you say father can’t afford 
that.” 

“ Now, Nan, listen to me,” said Miss Blake, 
seriously, drawing her chair to the girl’s, and 
emphasizing her words by laying her hand upon 
hers and tapping it gently whenever a point 
was made. “ Let us put the matter quite plainly, 
and see if we can’t come to a conclusion that 
will both help Delia and save us the trouble of 
engaging another maid. One pair of hands can’t 
do the work in this house ! You admit that?” 

“ Yes ; I s’pose so,” conceded Nan. 

“ Well then, obviously, we must secure the 
aid of another pair — perhaps even two.” 

“ Uh-huh !” assented the girl cheerfully 
enough. 


CHANGES 


247 


‘‘ Not only that, we must secure the aid of 
another pair, if not two, at no additional ex- 
pense to your father.” 

Here Nan’s head began to drop. “ That’s 
what floors me,” she responded perplexedly. 
“ The rest is easy enough to settle ; but how in 
the world we are going to get peojDle to work for 
us for nothing — ” 

“ What are those things in your lap, Nan ?” 
asked the governess suddenly* with a quick smile 
and an extra tap of the finger on the girl’s palm. 

“ My hands, of course.” 

“ Why shouldn’t they be the pair we need ? 
I cordially offer the use of mine.” 

“Oh!” 

Nan’s face was rather blank. “ I hate house- 
work,” she added, and her mouth .drew down at 
the corners in a pout of petulance. 

“I doubt if any one really cares for it. But 
it must be done, and in this case you and 
I must consent to do it, at least in part. Now 
that you have looked the facts in the face, let us 
say no more about it, after we have settled just 
what we prefer to do. I have always taken care 
of my own room. Will you see to yours after 
this?” 


248 


MISS WILDFIKE 


“ I s’pose so. 

“ Then there is the dusting and the plants.” 

“ I’ll take the plants,” Nan hastened to de- 
clare. 

“ And the dishes on Mondays and Tuesdays ?” 
continued Miss Blake. 

There was a pause. 

“ If there’s one thing I despise it’s washing 
dishes,” cried the girl, her voice trembling with 
irritation. 

The governess looked down at her own two 
delicate little hands and seemed te be consider- 
ing. Then she raised her head quickly, and 
said, without a shade of resentment in her 
voice : 

a Very well then, dear, I’ll take the dishes. 
So here is the way it stands : You care for the 
plants and your own room and I’ll look after my 
room and do the dusting and the dishes.” 

“ You’ll have more to do than I,” hesitated 
Nan. 

“ No matter ; if you do your share well, and 
don’t neglect it, I am willing to stand by my part. 
Is it a bargain ?” 

Nan nodded grimly, and they shook hands 
upon it. 


CHAPTER XV 


A TUG OF WAR 

“ Is Nan in ?” asked Ruth, coming* to the 
house one day in the very teeth of a blinding 
snowstorm, and putting the question to Delia 
with a very decided note of excitement in her 
voice. 

“ Yes, she’s in ; but she’s pretty busy,” re- 
plied Delia, showing the guest into the dining- 
room, where the bright logs were blazing cheer- 
fully in the fireplace, and where Miss Blake, 
enveloped in a huge apron, was kneeling before 
the hearth and polishing its tiles till they shone 
like gems. She stopped to welcome the guest 
in her own hearty, informal fashion. 

“ O Ruth ! come in and sit down. I won- 
dered who could be brave enough to face a 
storm like this. Why, it is almost a blizzard. 
Take off your things, dear, and get warmed. 
You won’t mind my going on with my work?” 

“ Oh, no ! not at all. Please don’t stop. 
Thank you. This is as comfortable as can be. 

249 


250 


MISS WILDFIRE 


But then, one always is comfortable here. I 
came to see Nan about something important. 
She’s busy ?” 

“ Yes, in her room. But if you don’t mind 
waiting a little I think she will soon be able to 
come down,” responded the governess genially. 

“ Then I’ll sit here, if you don’t mind,” and 
the girl settled herself in an engulfing arm- 
chair with a sigh of satisfaction, her eyes fol- 
lowing Miss Blake from place to place as she 
tripped briskly about, energetically wielding her 
dust cloth and whisk broom and humming con- 
tentedly as she worked. 

“ Perhaps you won’t approve of the plan that 
I’ve got in my mind, and won’t let Nan go into 
it,” ventured Ruth, presently. 

“ I can’t fancy you suggesting anything that 
I would so seriously disapprove of as that,” re- 
turned Miss Blake, smiling kindly, but asking 
for no further enlightenment on the subject 
than her guest was inclined to give of her own 
accord. 

“ Well, then, it’s this : If the cold weather 
lasts we’ll have elegant sleighing, with all this 
snow, and I want to hire a sleigh, just any 
common old thing will do, and fill it with 


A TUG OF WAR 


251 


straw, and all of us girls and boys go off on a 
screamingly fine sleigh-ride. If it clears we’ll 
have a full moon, and I think it would just he 
the j oiliest thing in the world. Now please 
say Nan can go. She’ll love to I know, and 
she always makes things snap so,” pleaded the 
girl, fixing her eyes on Miss Blake’s face with a 
peculiar intensity of expression. 

The governess hesitated. 

“ Oh, please say she can,” reiterated Ruth. 

“ My dear Ruth, I can’t say anything until I 
know more of the matter. You say you girls 
and boys are to go. What girls and boys do 
you mean ?” 

“ Why, Lu and Grace and Mary and the 
Buckstone girls, of course ; and John Gardiner 
and Harley Morris and Everett Webster, and 
oh ! all those fellows — the ones in our set ; 
you’ve met them all.” 

“ And is there to be no grown woman in 
the party — no chaperone?” suggested Miss 
Blake. 

Ruth looked down and began picking a thread 
from the thumb of her glove. 

“ Oh, of course ; mamma wouldn’t let me go 
unless there was a chaperone,” she replied after 


252 


MISS WILDFIRE 


a moment, but tamely, with the ring all faded 
out of her voice. 

“ No, I am sure she would not,” the governess 
' remarked dryly. 

“I thought of you at once,” Ruth began 
again with an upward glance that however did 
not meet Miss Blake’s eye. “ But then we all 
thought that it would be too much to ask of 
you — to ride all those miles with a noisy crowd 
in the cold and night, and — so on, and so — so — 
just before I came here I ran into Mrs. Cole and 
asked her to chaperone us, and she said she 
would.” 

The governess laid her duster on a chair, and 
unbuttoned her apron very deliberately. 

“ Mrs. Cole,” she repeated half-aloud, as if 
speaking to herself, and her tone had something 
in it that seemed to call for some sort of justi- 
fication from Buth. 

“ You know she’s just been married, and she’s 
as full of fun as she can be. And she likes a 
good time immensely, and loves to be with us 
girls, and it won’t bore her a bit to go, and 
it’s ever so much better to have her than — 
than — some one who wouldn’t enjoy it, you 
know.” 


A TUG OF WAR 


253 


“ Is Mr. Cole to be of the party ?” Miss Blake 
inquired, still with that odd inflection. 

“Why, no,” responded Ruth, twisting her 
handkerchief into a hard knot. “ There won’t 
be room for him. But Mrs. Cole said it didn’t 
matter in the least. She says she often goes 
off and leaves him, and he has just as nice a 
time sitting home with his cigar and a book or 
something.” 

“They have been married, I think, three 
months,” Miss Blake commented half to 
herself. 

“Yes, about,” replied Ruth. “And Mrs. 
Cole is just as gay and jolly as she ever was. 
You may think that it isn’t very dignified for a 
married woman to — ” 

“Oh! my dear Ruth,” interrupted the gov- 
erness hastily, “ I am not disparaging Mrs. 
Cole, and I have no right to express an opinion 
concerning her conduct, but I think — yes, I am 
quite sure that I prefer Nan not to join your 
party.” 

Ruth jumped from her chair with a cry of 
protest : “ O Miss Blake ! Don’t say that ! 
Think of it, we’re going to drive down as far 
as Howe’s and have a supper and it will be 


254 


MISS WILDFIRE 


such fun. We want Nan awfully. She’s just 
the best company in the world, and if she 
doesn’t go it will be — well, it will be too bad. 
Do please say she may.” 

Miss Blake shook her head somewhat sadly. 
“ I can’t say so, Ruth. There are special 
reasons why Nan ought not to go — reasons that 
I can only explain to her, but which I am sure 
she will understand. You other girls have your 
mothers, but Nan has none, and that means 
that she has no protector, now that her father 
is absent, unless I can stand in such a relation 
to her. Believe me, I do not voluntarily deny 
Nan any pleasure, but there are some instances 
in which I must.” 

“But it’s going to be perfectly proper,” Ruth 
insisted, almost in tears. “ You don’t think 
my mother would let me go if it wasn’t going 
to be perfectly proper, do you, Miss Blake ?” 

The governess stood before the fire and rested 
her arm on the high mantel-shelf, tapping the 
fender lightly with the toe of her slipper. At 
Ruth’s question she turned her head quickly 
from the flames toward the girl with a compas- 
sionate smile. 

“ No,” she hastened to declare, “ I am sure 


A TUG OF WAR 


2 55 


your mother would not let you go to anything 
that she knew to be in any respect not altogether 
as it should be. ,, 

There was just the shade of an emphasis on 
the word knew — just the merest breath of a 
pause before it. Miss Blake gazed frankly and 
fearlessly into the giiTs eyes as she spoke, and 
Ruth’s lids dropped suddenly as if she had 
been trying to look at the sun and it had 
blinded her. 

There was a pause and in it they could dis- 
tinctly hear Nan’s feet going to and fro on the 
floor above their heads, and her sharp young 
voice shouting the chorus of some tuneless pop- 
ular air, in her own perfectly cheerful, earless 
fashion. 

“ Oh, Miss Blake, please !” quavered Buth. 

If she had known the governess as well as 
Nan did she would have known that it was 
worse than useless to “ tease.” As it was, she 
was aware of some force here that did not appear 
in her own easy-going mother, and unconsciously 
she bowed to it — but even as she did so she gave 
a last wail of entreaty from pure force of habit. 

“ Please, Miss Blake !” 

“No, Ruth, I can’t consent to Nan’s joining 


256 


MISS WILDFIRE 


you. If she goes, it will be in direct defiances 
of my authority and against my wish and ap- 
proval. But when she hears what I have to say 
I do not think she will go.” 

“ Don’t think who will go ?” demanded an 
eager voice, as Nan came pelting in at the door, 
having flung down stairs in such a whirl that 
they had scarcely realized she had started before 
she was here. 

“ Heyo, Ruth ! When did you come ? You’re 
a dear girl to venture out a day like this ! Who’ll 
go where, 4 you don’t think,’ Miss Blake ?” 

Ruth rose and began dragging on her gloves. 
“ Hello,” she said, blankly, in return for the 
other’s greeting. 

“ Who’ll go ? Who’ll go ?” insisted Nan, tap- 
ping the floor with her foot to emphasize her 
impatience. 

Ruth looked at Miss Blake a little sullenly, 
and said nothing. Miss Blake looked at Nan. 

“You,” she returned simply. “I was just 
saying to Ruth that I am sure you would not go 
anywhere against my plainly expressed wish.” 

The girl threw back her head with an unre- 
strained laugh. 

“ Oh, now, you’re bragging !” she cried 


A TUG OF WAR 


257 


breezily. “ Don’t count too much on me. I’m 
a queer creature. I don’t know what I’d do if I 
were hard put !” 

Ruth glanced at Miss Blake again as she but- 
toned her coat. The governess’ face was quite 
placid, but there was an expression in her eyes 
that was quite new to the girl and that she did 
not care to face. 

“ The fact of the matter is, Nan,” Miss Blake 
explained, “ Ruth has come here to invite you 
to join »a sleighing party to be given — what 
night did you say, Ruth?” 

“ The first clear one,” responded the girl still 
sullenly. 

“ The first clear night,” resumed Miss Blake. 
“ All your friends are going, and it would give 
me as much pleasure to have you join them as it 
would you to do so, but — under the circumstances 
it is impossible to do anything save — ” she 
paused an instant, and Nan broke in impa- 
tiently : 

“ Under what circumstances ? There aren’t 
any circumstances ! A sleighing party ! Why, 
it’ll be just magnificent and gorgeous ! Of course 
I’ll go. Hurrah ! Ruth, you’re a dear to ask 
me! Go? Well, I should think so !” 

17 


258 


MISS WILDFIRE 


Ruth fastened her fur boa about her neck, and 
murmured something almost inaudible about 
having to hurry home. 

“ Well, you can count on me,” cried Nan, fling- 
ing her arm about her friend’s waist and escort- 
ing her to the door. “ Good-bye ! Thanks heaps 
for asking me ! Las’ tag !” 

The front door slammed, and the girl came 
back to the library with her cheeks aglow and 
her eyes flashing. “ What fun !” she exclaimed. 
“ I know what we’ll do ! We’ll go down to 
Howe’s and have a supper and a jolly good time 
generally. Mary Brewster and Grace and Ruth 
had it all planned out for the next good snow, 
and I’d forgotten. O goody !” 

Miss Blake was standing as they had left her, 
by the fire, with her foot upon the fender and 
her hand upon the high mantel-shelf. Now 
she took them both down and turned to Nan, 
saying in a low, controlled voice : 

“ Nan, I want to talk to you about this party. 
And you must hear me out, even if some of the 
tilings I am about to say do not please you.’’ 
She kept her eyes on the girl’s face as she spoke, 
and saw its expression change quickly from one 
of eager anticipation to one of growing apjire- 


A TUG OF WAR 


259 


hension and then again to one of dogged opposi- 
tion. So vivid were these changes that she 
almost lost the necessary courage to go on, for 
she read in them that her task promised to be 
no easy one. 

“Well?” said Nan, tapping her foot impa- 
tiently, as Miss Blake did not at once continue. 

“ Please sit down here, and I will try to say 
what I have to say as quickly as possible,” re- 
sumed the governess, drawing a long breath. 

Nan obeyed, but with a decidedly impatient 
fling of herself upon the low ottoman Miss Blake 
had indicated. 

“ As I said to Ruth,” the low voice commenced, 
“ under almost any other circumstances it would 
give me the greatest pleasure to know that you 
were to enjoy this sleighing party with the 
others. If Mrs. Andrews or Mrs. Hawes were 
going it would settle the question at once.” 

“ Or if you were,” suggested Nan, with a curl 
of her lip. 

Miss Blake’s face paled, and for an instant 
she regarded Nan in a sort of surprised, hurt 
silence. Then she replied, steadily: “Yes, or 
if I were. But as it is Mrs. Cole, the case is 
entirely altered. Mrs. Cole is scarcely more 


260 


MISS WILDFIRE 


than a girl herself, and — I say this to you, Nan, 
simply because I must — she has never been, to 
my idea, a lady-like young woman. She has 
always been flippant and frivolous and boister- 
ous ; anything but a good companion for a num- 
ber of impulsive, impressionable girls like your- 
self” 

“ Oh, pshaw !” interrupted Nan, impatiently. 
“ There’s nothing against her at all. She’s lots 
of fun, and a body’d be a great goose that tried 
to suit all the old frumps in town. She said so 
herself, and she’s married and she knows.” 

A ghost of a smile flitted across Miss Blake’s 
face. Nan’s emphasis reflected so directly on her 
own condition of unauthoritative spinsterhood. 

“ If you and the other girls have no more 
careful a chaperone, one who will be no more of 
a restraint than Mrs. Cole, I am afraid the party 
will prove a rather uproarious one. And I 
cannot help thinking that this is precisely the 
reason Mrs. Cole has been asked to attend you ; 
that you might not be under any restraint. I 
don’t for a moment think any of you girls would 
deliberately take advantage of your liberty, but 
you are full of animal spirits, and when you get 
in full swing it is a little hard, perhaps harder 


A TUG OF WAR 


261 


than you know, to rein yourselves in. I am 
afraid Ruth has not been quite candid with her 
mother. At all events, I am sure that if Mrs. 
Andrews realized the circumstances she would 
think twice before letting Ruth go. It is not 
only that I think Mrs. Cole will not prove a re- 
straint ; I am afraid she will intentionally lead 
you on. And if she does, I am afraid your 
sleigh-ride will be decidedly unconventional.” 

“ I hope we’ll have splendid time,” en- 
nounced Nan, setting her jaws with a snap of 
her teeth. 

But the governess went on as if she had 
neither seen nor heard. 

“ It is very important, Nan, that you espe- 
cially should not be identified with anything of 
the sort. It might injure you in such a way that 
the harm could never be repaired.” She paused 
and Nan straightened herself with a jerk. 

“ I’d like to know why it’s more important for 
me than for the other girls ? If their mothers 
think it’s good enough for them I guess it’s good 
enough for me, and if they can be trusted I 
guess I can.” 

Miss Blake hesitated, but only for a moment. 
Then she went on steadily and firmly, but 


262 MISS WILDFIHE 

without the least suggestion of sternness in her 
voice or manner. 

“ The reason is simply this : You have not 
had the advantages the other girls have had. 
You have had no mother; no careful, loving 
training from the first, and — excuse me, dear — 
your behavior has shown it. How could it he 
expected not to do so ? People have criticized 
you, and their criticisms have been severe, un- 
just even. Lately you have set yourself right 
with most of your neighbors, hut it has been 
hard work, and it has been only begun. It will 
still be hard work to keep their good opinion. 
If you want to hold a place in their esteem you 
must earn it and keep on earning it. The other 
girls might do with perfect safety what you 
could not dream of doing, because in them it 
would be looked on merely as a single slip ; 
with you it would be backsliding. Do you un- 
derstand me, Nan?” 

There was no reply, but the girl’s bent head 
was answer enough. Miss Blake passed her 
hand tenderly over the roughened hair, and for 
a long time there was silence between them. 
Nan was thinking, and Miss Blake was content 
to let her think. 


A TUG OF WAR 


263 


The tall clock in the corner tapped out the 
minutes with slow, even ticks. The fire burned 
steadily on the hearth, and the logs settled as 
they burned. Outside the high wind raced 
madly around bleak street corners, carrying the 
snow before it in white, blinding clouds. The 
air was so full of the swirling, eddying flakes 
that it dimmed the light and made evening seem 
to have settled down long before its usual time. 
Every now and then there came to them from 
the conservatory a faint, faint breath from a 
blossoming daphne, as though the delicate thing 
were breathing out sweet gratitude for its shel- 
ter from the storm. 

Nan could not help responding to the quiet- 
ing influence of it all. It was very, very dif- 
ferent from the place as it used to be, and she 
felt the difference and the suggestiveness of it 
more now than she had ever done before. 

Suppose the change in herself was as marked 
as this ? Every one seemed to like her now- 
adays. They said she was altered and im- 
proved, and if they said so, she supposed it 
must be true. What, then, if she were to turn 
about and be her old self again ? 

What if Miss Blake were to give the house 


264 


MISS WILDFIRE 


its old aspect again ? Ugh ! It was disheart- 
ening even to think of such a thing. But 
granting that she were to let things go back, 
she couldn’t undo some of the improvements she 
had made? So it seemed reasonable to Nan 
that even if she let herself be as she had been 
for awhile, just to rest from the constant trying 
to be good, for a day or so, the really important 
changes must still remain ; like the dumb- 
waiter and the wall paper and the frescoes and 
the woodwork. And, pshaw ! J ust going to this 
sleigh-ride wasn’t going to prove that she was 
backsliding, anyway ! Miss Blake was too par- 
ticular — making an awful fuss over nothing. 
Mrs. Cole was all right enough. Lots of nice 
people knew her, and the girls always liked to 
have her round, she was so gay and jolly. 
And now that she was married, it was fun 
to have her chaperone them, for she never in- 
terfered, nor was wet-blankety, like mothers and 
people, no matter what was going on. In fact, 
she often urged them on and suggested things 
the girls themselves would never have thought 
of, so that wherever she was the fun promised to 
run high. It was too bad of Miss Blake to 
have put the case as she had. It simply meant 


A TUG OF WAR 


265 


that if Nan went she deliberately disobeyed her 
wish and defied her authority. 

For the first time the girl seemed to get 
a glimpse of the tactful, tender way in which 
she had been guided. She saw that this was the 
first instance in which she had been put under 
definite restraint. Always before Miss Blake 
had left her seemingly to decide for herself, and 
she had never been aware of the influence that 
led her in the right direction. 

But this was different. This was discipline, 
and she rose against it instantly. 

If she did not go on the sleigh-ride she would 
only be obeying Miss Blake’s injunction. There 
was no credit or virtue in that. There might 
be some satisfaction in denying one’s self a 
pleasure if one felt one were independent, and 
that what one did was self-abnegating and laud- 
able. But if one acted under compulsion — ! 
Pooh ! Nan guessed Miss Blake thought she 
was a mere child to be ordered about like that. 

And yet, with all this, there was a strange 
unfamiliar tugging at her heart to confess her- 
self willing to obey. She actually had to make 
an effort to keep from doing so. She scarcely 
knew how it happened, but all at once she 


266 


MISS WILDFIRE 


became conscious that she had shaken herself 
together and that she was saying, in no very 
gracious voice to be sure, but still that she was 
saying, “ Well, if you will have it your own way, 
you will I suppose. There ! I promise you I 
won’t go on the sleigli-ride. Now, does that 
satisfy you ?” 

Miss Blake took her hand from Nan’s hair 
so hastily that the girl lifted her head in aston- 
ishment. But the governess had neither the 
air of being angry nor of being wounded as she 
feared. She simply rose and said in quite a 
matter-of-fact tone as she turned toward the 
door : 

“ I demanded no promise of you, Nan, and I 
give you back your word. Moreover, I entirely 
recall my injunction. Do as you please. If you 
decide to go you will neither be disobeying my 
order nor breaking your own promise. You 
are quite free and untrammeled, my dear.” 

Nan sprang to her feet. 

“Huh!” she cried in an exasperated manner, 
“ I know what you mean ! You mean I am 
quite free to go and — take the consequences. 
That’s what you mean.” 

Miss Blake paused but made no reply. 


A TUG OF WAR 


267 


“ But suppose there aren’t any consequences ?” 
pursued Nan, biting her lip and scowling darkly 
from between her knitted brows. 

Miss Blake turned her head. 

“ There are always consequences,” she said 
over her shoulder in a voice that was very low 
and serious. 


CHAPTEE XYI 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 

The storm lasted for three days and then 
came a term of perfect weather. Under foot the 
snow was packed hard and tight into a compact 
mass over a bed of ice, and overhead the sun 
shone out from a cloudless sky, while the air 
was so keen that it kept the mercury very close 
to the zero mark even at midday. 

“ How is this for high ?” demanded Euth ex- 
ultantly, as she and Nan met toward the end of 
the week, the first time they had seen each other 
since that stormy day when the subject of the 
sleigh-ride had first been broached to Miss 
Blake. 

“The weather, you mean? Oh, perfectly 
fine !” responded Nan. 

Euth drew a step nearer to her. 

“ It’s all arranged for to-night. Not a soul 
has refused ; every one we’ve asked is going, 
and the sleigh is a regular old ark. We’ve got 
everything our own way. Mike, from the sta- 
268 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


269 


bles, is as solid as a brick wall. The horses are 
perfectly safe and we're going to have footstoves 
to keep our toes warm. Mrs. Cole has tele- 
phoned down to Howe's to have our supper 
ready, and we’re going to have a simply stun- 
ning time. 

Nan tried to smile, but failed, and Ruth was 
too full of her own affairs to notice. 

“ We're going to start at eight sharp. First 
we thought we’d pick up the party as we went 
along, but Mrs. Cole said it would waste too 
much time, so we're all going to meet at her 
house. I've so much on my mind my head's 
spinning. Be sure you're on hand at eight. 
We're not going to wait for any one." 

“ O Ruth !" faltered Nan, flinging out a 
detaining hand as the girl was about to go. “ I'm 
not going. Didn't I tell you ?" 

Ruth stopped short and gazed at her in 
bewilderment. 

“ Not going ! What on earth do you mean ?" 

“ I can't go ; that's all," stammered Nan, 
flushing hotly at the seeming weakness of the 
confession. 

Ruth stared at her blankly. 

“Well, I like that!" she enunciated at length. 


270 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Why, I told you, didn’t I?” asked Nan. 

“ Told me what ? That you weren’t going? 
Well, I should say not. Miss Blake said you 
couldn’t but you said flat down you would, and, 
of course, I believed you. Don’t you remember 
the last words you said as I went away that day 
were that I could count on you ? And so, of 
course, I counted.” 

Nan stood and regarded the snow at her feet 
in silence. 

“ It’s right-down mean to back out at the last 
minute when the party’s all made up and the 
couples all arranged and you’ve given your 
word. We’ve been awfully careful whom we’ve 
asked, because we only wanted a certain kind — 
not alone a certain number. Of course, w T e 
could get lots of girls to take your place and 
jump at the chance ; but we prefer you, and 
you’d given your promise.” 

Nan ground the snow under her foot until it 
squeaked. 

“ I thought you were sick, or something, 
when you didn’t come around,” went on Buth, 
sternly. “ I never imagined for a minute it was 
because you meant to flunk and leave us in the 
lurch like this. If I’d thought that I wouldn’t 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


271 


have gone to all the trouble I did to save you a 
place next to John Gardiner when Mary 
Brewster was fighting tooth and nail to get 
it.” 

The pinched snow squeaked again under 
Nan’s grinding heel, this time louder than 
before. 

“ It’s all nonsense, Miss Blake’s not wanting 
you to go,” pursued Buth. “ Everything is as 
proper as pie, and if the boys get to carrying on 
a little too much Mrs. Cole will settle them in 
no time. She’s real determined when she makes 
up her mind. What under the sun does 
Miss Blake think we are going to do? But 
that’s no matter now. You gave me your word, 
and you’ve no right to go back on it. Besides, 
it’ll set us all topsy-turvey with our accounts, 
for if you don’t go of course you won’t turn in 
your share of the tax, and we couldn’t ask any 
one at the last minute just to come as a make- 
shift and expect her to pay for the privilege. 
The end of it will be the rest of us will have 
to make it up, and if you think that’s fair I 
don’t !” 

“Til gladly pay my dues,” returned Nan, 
more meekly than Ruth had ever heard her 


272 


MISS WILDFIRE 


speak. “ You can ask any one you choose as 
my substitute, and say anything you please to 
explain my not going, and I’ll stand by you.” 

This began to sound serious, and Ruth felt 
it was time to clinch her argument. 

“ If you go out Louie Hawes will, too. Her 
mother said she’d let Lu go if Miss Blake would 
let you, but that if Miss Blake objected she 
thought it would be best not to have Lu join. 
She said she made Lu’s going entirely condi- 
tional on yours. So, you see, if you back out 
you’ll not alone be breaking your promise, but 
you’ll be breaking up the party and making a 
mess of it all round. I told Mrs. Hawes you 
were going, and La’s heart is set on it. If she 
has to stay back now, at the last minute like 
this, it will disappoint her dreadfully, and I 
wouldn’t blame her if she never spoke to you 
again.” 

Nan felt that she had been driven into a cor- 
ner, and that there was but one way out o** 

In spite of her strong desire to go with the 
girls, she had determined to stick to her resolve 
to stay behind. She had hardly known why she 
had tried to avoid them all these days. But 
now she knew. It was because she was afraid 


THE SLEIGH-KIDE 


273 


they would shake her resolution. Once she 
would have called herself cowardly for trying 
to spare herself such temptation, but now she 
knew better ; she saw she had been simply wise. 
It would not have been brave, but merely reck- 
less, to have done otherwise. She had known 
ever since Miss Blake spoke that she was free to 
do as she pleased. That she was held by no 
promise ; that she was compelled by no stronger 
claim than Miss Blake’s disapproval, which 
might be, after all, only a groundless personal 
prejudice, she thought. She hardly realized 
why she felt bound to obey. And now along 
came Ruth to prove that there were other claims 
outside Miss Blake’s. She remembered per- 
fectly having said that Ruth could count on her. 
Here was a very definite promise, although it 
had been made in half-ignorance, and she un- 
derstood clearly that Ruth meant to make her 
keep it. Then, again, she was directly responsi- 
ble for Louie’s disappointment, and this seemed 
to her, as Ruth had intended it should seem, a 
compelling conclusion. If she had been older 
her reasoning would not have stopped here, but, 
as it was, she perceived only two sides to the 
question, and this that Ruth had just presented 
18 


274 


MISS WILDFIRE 


seemed infinitely more convincing than the one 
Miss Blake had tried to make clear to her. 
Ruth’s logic she could understand; the gov- 
erness’ seemed vague and incomprehensible. In 
one case she had been coerced into making a 
promise from which she had later been absolved ; 
in the other she had given her word of her own 
free will, and she was being stoutly held to it. 
There were other influences at work, but Nan 
did not know it. She honestly believed she was 
waiving all considerations but those with which 
her duty was concerned, and she thought she 
had done so when she broke out with a sort of 
impatient groan : 

“ Oh, dear ! I never saw such a tangle !” 

“Well,” returned Ruth grimly, “I don’t 
know anything about that, but whatever it may 
be, I’ve got the strong end of the line and I 
mean to hold it. You’ve just got to go and 
that’s all there is to it.” 

Nan gave a rueful laugh. She more than 
half-liked to have Ruth leave her no alterna- 
tive. It somehow made her seem less responsi- 
ble to herself. If the decision were taken out of 
her hands she could not be held accountable and 
— the enjoyment would be there all the same. 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


275 


“ I wish you’d let me off, Rutli,” she pro- 
tested weakly, as a sort of last sop to her con- 
science. 

Ruth saw that she had prevailed and gave 
her head a triumphant toss. “ Well, I won’t, 
so there ! And what’s more I can’t stand here 
wasting time ] ike this another minute. I have 
a hundred things to do before eight o’clock, 
so good-bye ! Be sure you’re on time for we 
won’t wait a second, and if you don’t arrive 
none of us will ever speak to you again, so 
there !” 

Nan stood dumbly stubbing her toe into a 
little mound of snow quite a minute after Ruth 
had left her. She had not even glanced up 
when, in response to her friend’s last declara- 
tion, she had said, “ Very well ; I’ll be on hand,” 
and her voice had sounded so flat and lifeless 
that Ruth thought it better to hasten off before 
the words could be recalled. When Nan spoke 
in that half-hearted tone Ruth had no faith in 
her strength of purpose. She walked home in 
a doubtful frame of mind, wondering if, after 
all, the promise would be kept. 

But Nan had no such misgivings. She knew 
perfectly well that she was “ in for it ” now, but, 


276 


MISS WILDFIRE 


strange to say, she felt no exultation in the 
prospect. 

“ Oh, dear !” she snapped out peevishly, with 
a last vicious dig of her heel into the snow, 
“ every hit of enjoyment is taken out of it, I 
never saw anything so provoking in the whole 
of my life. If Miss Blake only hadn’t heen so 
mean, I might have been spared all this fret 
and bother and heen just as jolly as any of them. 
But how can a person have a good time when 
they know there’s some one at home pulling a 
long face and making one feel as if otle were 
breaking all the laws. It’s just too bad, that’s 
what it is.” 

But Miss Blake neither “ pulled a long face ” 
nor by any other means tried to impress Nan 
with a sense of her disapproval. She took her 
decision quietly, and made no comment upon it 
one way or the other. But when it neared 
dressing time, and the girl had gone to her room 
to prepare, she tapped gently for admittance and 
came in, bearing in her hand a coquettish seal- 
skin hood which she generously offered to Nan, 
saying : 

“ It’s bitterly cold, and I know you won’t 
want to tie a comforter about your ears. If 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


277 


you will wear this I shall be only too happy to 
lend it to you. See, the cape is so full and 
deep your chest and back can’t get chilled, and 
it is not at all clumsy, as so many of them are. 
Try it on. I think it will be becoming and I 
know it will keep you warm.” 

Nan was at a loss for words. Miss Blake 
had none of the air of heaping coals of fire on 
her head, but just for a second the girl suspected 
her of it and hung back reluctantly. Then she 
looked into the frank, honest eyes and all her 
suspicion vanished. 

“You’re — you’re awfully kind,” she stam- 
mered, hastily. 

“ Try it on,” repeated Miss Blake, cordially. 

Nan took the soft, warm thing by its rich 
brown ribbons and, setting it snugly on her 
head, tied the strings into a big broad bow 
beneath her chin. 

“ It’s not so unbecoming !” commented the 
governess, observing Nan critically with her 
head on one side. 

Nan looked in the mirror. What she saw 
there was the reflection of a flushed, excited 
face with keen, young eyes that were just now 
unusually large and bright. Sundry riotous 


278 


MISS WILDFIRE 


tendrils of hair had escaped from their restrain- 
ing combs and were flying loose at the temples, 
and, framing all, was a circle of dusky, flatter- 
ing fur which lent a look of softness and round- 
ness to the firm, square chin and rose above the 
brow in a quaint, coquettish peak which was 
vastly graceful and becoming. 

“ O Miss Blake !” cried Nan, her eyes flash- 
ing with pleasure, “ isn’t it the darlingest thing? 
And as warm as toast ! I’ll be ever and ever so 
careful of it. You’re awfully good to lend it to 
me. But I really think I oughtn’t to take it. 
Something might happen ; it might get lost.” 

“ Don’t give it another thought,” Miss Blake 
said, kindly. “Just wear it and keep warm 
and comfortable. You must take the gloves, 
too. They will keep your fingers cozy.” 

So Nan set out looking like a young Bussian 
in her borrowed furs and feeling what satisfac- 
tion she might in the consciousness that she was 
appearing, if not behaving, at her best. 

She found most of the party already assem- 
bled at Mrs. Cole’s and as the door was opened 
to her, a loud chorus of shouting laughter met 
her ears and she was laid hold of by a dozen 
hands and dragged forward under the gaslight. 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


279 


“ Pooh !” shrieked the chorus again. “This 
one’s easy enough ! Nan Cutler ! first guess,” 
and she was released as hurriedly as she had 
been set upon, while the entire company fell 
upon a later comer and tried to discover the 
identity of the mufiled, veiled individual before 
she had either spoken or recovered from the 
unexpected onslaught. 

“ Well, Nan,” cried Harley Morris, jovially, 
“ you’re the only girl who isn’t mufiled out of 
all recognition. We’ve had a dandy time try- 
ing to identify some of them.” 

“I never saw you look so well,” declared 
Louie Hawes, generously, with her eyes glued 
to the fascinating peak. 

“ Nor I,” broke in Mary Brewster. “ Keally, 
I didn’t know you at first. That hood is as dis- 
guising to you as our veils are to us.” 

Nan flushed, but made no response. Harley 
Morris gave a low whistle and strolled off to join 
John Gardiner, who was standing before the fire 
talking with grave-faced Mr. Cole, and as he 
went she heard him murmur under his breath : 

“ Sweet remark ! Oh, these dear girl friends !” 

It instantly changed her feeling from moment- 
ary resentment toward Mary to pity for her. 


280 


MISS WILDFIRE 


All at once Mrs. Cole’s shrill treble was heard 
high above the hum and murmur of the other 
voices, crying : 

“ Now, girls and boys, time’s almost up ! It 
any of the party’s missing, he or she will be 
left behind ! Prompt’s the word.” 

Then, stepping over to her husband, she 
tapped him lightly on the shoulder and said : 

“ There now, Tom, I’m glad we’re going, for 
you’re looking as solemn as an owl. Cheer up 
and have a lovely time with your book and that 
jolly fire, and don’t forget to go to bed at nine 
o’clock like a good little boy.” 

Mary Brewster laughed, and most of the 
others joined in her merriment. But Mr. Cole 
looked so troubled and stern that Nan, who was 
gazing at him from the corners of her eyes, saw 
no reason to laugh at his wife’s sally, but felt a 
much greater inclination to cry for pity of him 
and his anxious face. 

Suddenly she was roused from her musing by 
John Gardiner’s voice close at her ear. 

“ Nan !” he said. 

“ Oh, heyo, John !” 

“ I want to tell you something,” he went on, 
nervously, in a hesitating whisper. “ From the 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


281 


looks of her, Mrs. Cole means to carry things 
with a high hand to-night. Hope we won’t 
come to grief. Sometimes the motto is ‘ every- 
thing goes/ and then it isn’t so easy to hold back 
and stand for the things you ought to. I depend 
on you, Nan, to keep a level head, for some of us’ll 
have to act as ballast or we’ll all go under.” 

Nan’s face glowed with gratification. “All 
right, John,” she responded staunchly, and then, 
Mrs. Cole giving the signal, in an instant the 
roomful seemed to fling itself helter-skelter to 
the hall-door, fastening boas and mufflers as it 
went, all eager and breathless to be off. There 
was a deal of laughing and exclaiming, shriek- 
ing and protesting as the girls were bundled, one 
after another, into the sleigh. 

“ Is this you, Lu ?” 

“Yes. O dear! I have lost my veil. No, 
here it is, dragged under my chin.” 

“ I thought I was to sit next to you, Nan !” 

“ Oh, that’s all right, Mary’s there, and 
it’s too late to change now. No matter.” 

John Gardiner leaped up. 

“ I say there, Mike, hold your horses for a 
second. Would you mind moving down a place, 
Mary ? Thanks ! Mrs. Cole said I was to sit 


282 


MISS WILDFIRE 


next to Nan, and as we are all under her orders 
to-night I’m bound to obey. There ! this is 
what I call festive ! 4 A thorn between two 

roses/ eh?” and he settled himself comfortably 
between the two girls with a great, hearty 
laugh and a final “ Ready !” at which word the 
horses started into a brisk trot. Their bells 
broke into a silver chime; the sleigh swept 
smoothly over the glaze of snow, and the even- 
ing’s fun began. 

Some one had brought a tin horn, and this 
was blown with such a vim that conversation 
was impossible. But remarks and retorts were 
shouted from one side to the other, and the 
tamest of them brought forth peals of laughter. 

The heaven above them was densely black, 
and out of it flashed innumerable stars like 
sparks white-hot and quivering with inward 
fire. But the wind that swept across the sky 
was so cold that it made it seem to contract and 
retreat and leave the shivering world an incon- 
ceivable depth below. 

Swathed and bundled as they were, the girls 
very soon began to feel the deadly chill in the 
icy air. 

“ Nan’s shivering like an ash-pan !” John 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


283 


cried out suddenly. “ Has anybody got an extra 
shawl or something they can lend her?” 

“ Hush !” returned the girl, trying to control 
her trembling, “ it’s nothing ; I’m all right.” 

“ Pity she can’t keep warm with John Gardi- 
ner beside her !” Mrs. Cole suggested. 

In the shadow Nan’s teeth came together with 
a snap of disgust. She saw now what it was in 
Mrs. Cole that offended Miss Blake. She had 
never noticed it before, but it had been there, 
and she knew it. John made no retort, while 
the others laughed and applauded. 

“ Here, Nan !” spoke up some one at the other 
end of the sleigh, “ here’s a cigarette. Take it 
and warm yourself before its genial blaze,” and 
it was passed along from hand to hand, its 
ruddy point glinting out in the shadow as it 
went along. When it came to Mary, instead of 
handing it on at once, she held it a moment, then 
suddenly raised it to her lips. 

“ Hey, there ! Turn off the draught !” cried 
its owner merrily at sight of the newly-glowing 
tip. 

“ Shut down the damper !” shouted some one 
else. 

“ I dare you to smoke it !” laughed Mrs. Cole. 


284 


MISS WILDFIKE 


Mary deliberately took a long puff. 

Nan leaned back behind John and laid her 
gloved hand impulsively on Mary’s shoulder. 
“O Mary!” she protested in a whisper. 
“ Don’t. Please ! It’ll make you sick.” 

But the girl was not to be thwarted. She 
shook off Nan’s hand impatiently. 

“ Mind your own business !” she replied, and 
took another puff. 

On they swept through the icy air, across the 
snow-covered country, amid the white night. 
The horn blew ; the voices sang and shouted, 
and finally the sleigh swung up before the hos- 
pitable road-house, where every window was 
alight and their steaming supper awaited them. 

It was harder to get out of the sleigh than it 
had been to get in it, for joints that at first had 
been limber and strong were now stiff and 
cramped from cold and disuse, and the girls 
made a sorry show, limping and halting from 
the sleigh to the house. When Nan first 
gained the ground she could hardly stand, but 
a little vigorous exercise soon sent the blood 
tingling through her veins again and un- 
knotted her muscles, and she was about to run 
gayly up the path when she felt a hand upon 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


285 


her shoulder, and looking round saw Mary 
Brewster beside her, her face ghastly and drawn 
in the pallid moonlight and her chin quivering 
weakly in a manner that Nan saw at once was 
not the effect of the cold. 

“ Lean on my shoulder and I’ll get you up to 
the house in a jiff,” she said, in a low whisper. 

Mary clung to her, wavering and faint, with- 
out a word, and in the confusion no one no- 
ticed her plight. Nan had fairly to drag her 
up the steps, and then again up the staircase to 
the room the woman of the place had showed 
them when Nan had drawn her aside and told 
her of their dilemma. 

“ It’s the cold !” gasped Mary, crying abjectly 
between her spasms of misery. 

“ No such thing !” returned Nan stoutly. 
“ It’s that villainous cigarette. But never mind 
now. There ! Don’t think of anything but 
getting better. I’ll stroke your head for you. 
It must be aching terribly.” 

So she soothed and comforted the girl as best 
she could, and the kind mistress of the house 
came up every now and then with offers of help 
and reports of how the supper was progressing 
below, and after a while Mary grew quieter and 


286 


MISS WILDFIRE 


could do something beside moan and cry and 
wring her hands over her own wretchedness. 

“ Nan/’ she whispered presently in a con- 
scious-smitten voice, “ I want you to leave me 
and go down stairs. You’ve given up the best 
part of the fun for me, but you shan’t lose it 
all. Please go down !” 

Nan shook her head. “ No, you don’t, 
ma’am !” she declared cheerfully, and Mary was 
too exhausted to argue the question. She felt 
deliciously drowsy and the freedom from pain 
made her tearfully happy. Vague, dreamy 
thoughts were wandering through her brain, 
and one of them was that Nan had been very 
kind to her. She had not deserved it. She had 
been mean to Nan. She admitted it. She ought 
to beg her forgiveness. It was so good to be 
out of pain that she was willing to do anything 
to prove her gratitude. She opened her eyes 
and saw Nan bending over her with a face full 
of sympathy. She put up her hands and drew 
the face down to hers, her lip trembling like a 
little child’s. 

“ Kiss me, Nan !” 

Nan kissed her. 

“ I want you to forgive me. I’ve been hateful 


THE SLEIGH-RIDE 


287 


to you and you’ve been generous and kind 
and — I love you for it. I’d like to be your 
friend — if you’d let me, after the way I’ve 
treated you.” 

Nan kissed her again. “ Never mind that 
now. We’ll begin all over, and I guess I can 
behave a little better myself. Now go to sleep 
and get a good nap before it’s time to go home.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


CONSEQUENCES 

As soon as she saw that Mary had fallen 
soundly asleep Nan rose and slipped noiselessly 
down stairs. She had no trouble in finding the 
supper-room, for she had only to follow the 
echoing sounds to be led directly to the door. 
She stood a moment on the threshold before she 
laid her hand upon the knob. It seemed to her 
she had never heard such a liub-bub, but as she 
listened she seemed to hear, over and above it 
all, Miss Blake’s soft voice saying quietly : 

“ If you and the other girls have no more 
careful a chaperone than Mrs. Cole, I am afraid 
your party will prove a rather uproarious 
one.” 

“ Rather uproarious !” Nan smiled, as she re- 
peated the words to herself. Then she turned 
the knob and pushed open the door. 

The clamor surged louder than ever, and for a 
second seemed almost to stun her. Dishes were 
clattering, and every one seemed doing his or 
288 


CONSEQUENCES 


289 


her best to add to the tumult and confusion. No 
one noticed Nan standing dumbly in the door- 
way, and it was only when some one’s eye fell 
upon her as she took a step or two forward that 
there was a cry of “ Hullo ! Here’s Nan !” and 
she was pulled to the table, forced into a chair, 
and plied with all sorts of dishes and questions, 
until she put her hands to her ears and begged 
for mercy. 

“ Here’s some salad ! Take this !” 

“ The jelly’s most gone and what’s left of it 
is melted. But you’re welcome to it such as it 
is and what there is of it.” 

“ Where have you been all this time ?” 

“ We’ve been calling you every sort of a 
name for being so rude as to stay away from the 
supper.” 

“ Oh, Nan had her good reason,” shouted Mrs. 
Cole, pushing back her chair and springing to 
her feet. 

“ Come, girls and boys !” she cried shrilly, 
“it’s getting late. If we want to dance we’d 
better be about it.” 

Of course that led to a general uprising, and 
in a moment the whole tableful was swarming 
toward the parlor. 

19 


290 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“How do you like it, Nan?” asked John 
Gardiner, quizzically, coming and leaning to- 
ward her to whisper the question in her ear, as 
they stood at one side waiting for the music to 
begin. 

“ Like it !” repeated Nan, “ I think Mrs. 
Cole’s simply — well, I’m sorry she was ever 
asked to come. It would all have been so dif- 
ferent if we had had Mrs. Andrews or Mrs. 
Hawes or — -just imagine Miss Blake acting as 
she has to-night !” 

“I can’t imagine it!” returned John, em- 
phatically, “ and worse yet, Mike is in no con- 
dition to drive us home. He’s been drinking. 
I went out to see if the horses were all right and 
being fed, you know, and there I heard about 
it. Mike simply mustn’t drive.” 

Nan pressed her hands together and gave a 
stifled groan. 

“ That’s what I wanted to tell you,” continued 
John, hurriedly. “ It isn’t safe to let him try 
and I’m going to take his place myself. I don’t 
know how long I can stand it, for it’s colder 
than ever and I haven’t any driving gloves, but 
I’ll do the best I can and perhaps some of the 
other fellows will lend a hand.” 


CONSEQUENCES 


291 


Nan thought a minute. “ I tell you what,” 
she declared at last, “ I’m going to do part of 
the driving myself. I’ll sit up front and when 
you give out I’ll lend a hand and we’ll get 
through somehow. I’ve Miss Blake’s gloves 
and they are as warm as toast.” 

The anxious look faded a little from John’s 
face, and in spite of himself he showed he was 
relieved. “ I may not have to give up at all,” 
he said at length ; “ hut if I do there’s not a fel- 
low in the whole lot I’d rather trust the reins 
to than you. Come ! They’re making a move. 
Get your things on as quick as you can and be 
where I can see you so we can take our places 
without making too much talk.” 

In a twinkling Nan had flown upstairs, 
roused Mary and helped her to get ready and 
was hooded and cloaked and standing in the 
hall- way. The others came up one by one and 
presently the big door was opened and they 
trooped through it out into the waiting sleigh. 
John gave Nan a hand and she sprang quickly 
to the place beside him on the driver’s seat. 
They started. 

It proved a very different matter sitting on 
that unsheltered box facing the wind to cud- 


292 


MISS WILDFIRE 


dling, as they had done before, among the warm 
straw with their faces shielded from the current 
by the high protecting sides of the sleigh, and 
after a very little while Nan had to set her 
teeth to keep from crying out for the j^ain in 
her stinging cheeks. 

Back of them the rest of the party shouted 
and tootled and yodeled as cheerfully as ever. 
Every one wanted to know what had become 
of Mike, and as nobody could tell but John 
and Nan, and they wouldn’t, the questions went 
unanswered, and by and by the subject was 
dropped and only occasional spiteful jokes made 
by Mrs. Cole at the expense of John’s driving 
and Nan’s sitting beside him while he did it. 

Happily the horses knew the way home and 
were eager to get there, so they did not have 
to be urged or guided. But it was necessary to 
hold a tight rein, and John’s hands soon began 
to feel tortured and twisted with the strain upon 
them biting through their numbness like screws 
of pain. He shook his head determinedly 
when Nan offered to relieve him, and at last she 
had to wrench the reins from him in order to 
take her share of duty and give him a chance 
to recover a little. 


CONSEQUENCES 


293 


So, taking turns faithfully like good com- 
rades, and exchanging never a word, they got 
the sleigh and its load safely into town at 
last, and not one of the gay, irresponsible party 
knew how difficult an achievement it had been. 

Miss Blake herself opened the door to Nan 
and let her in. One glance at her, as she stood 
huddled and quivering with cold in the vesti- 
bule, was enough. Not a question was asked. 
She was led gently into the warm dining-room, 
her hood and cloak taken from her and her 
frozen hands briskly chafed, while on Miss 
Blake’s tea-stand stood her little brass kettle, 
bubbling and purring merrily above its alcohol 
flame, and hinting broadly at soothing cups of 
something “ grateful and comforting.” 

Nan let herself be waited upon in a sort of 
half dream. The agony in her hands had been 
so great that it. had taken all her strength to 
bear it, and now it was going she felt weak and 
babyish. 

“ O dear !” she broke down at last, with a 
gulp of relief. “ It’s been an awful evening ! 
Mrs. Cole was detestable. Do you know what 
she did ?” and then came out the whole story pell- 
mell : all told in Nan’s blunt, uncompromising 


294 


MISS WILDFIRE 


way, and giving Miss Blake a better idea than 
anything else could have done of just how right 
she had been in opposing the girl's going under 
such chaperon age. 

She was too wise to say “ I told you so,” and 
she was too sincere to try to gloss over the 
probable result of the episode. She looked 
grave and thoughtful when Nan had finished 
her account, and her voice was very serious as 
she said : 

“ What the consequences to the others may 
be I don't know ; I dread to think. But I feel 
that at least you and John and Mary have seen 
things as they are, and will profit by your ex- 
perience. You remember the talk we had at 
Mrs. Newton's before the holidays? She said 
‘ Experience is an expensive school, and only 
fools can afford to go to it,' or something like 
that; you are no fool, Nan. I think you will 
see more and more plainly, as time goes on, 
that there are some things that we cannot afford 
to do. We cannot afford to buy a momentary 
pleasure at the price of a lifetime of regret, 
and we cannot afford to spend even one day 
of our life in unscrupulous company. It costs 
too much. We think we have a very keen 


CONSEQUENCES 


295 


business sense, we men and women, but we 
allow ourselves to be cheated every day we live 
in a way that would disgust us if we were 
dealing in dollars and cents. Self-respect is 
more valuable than momentary enjoyment, yet 
those boys and girls sold one for the other 
to-night. 

“ As for you, I think you made a good ex- 
change, Nan, when you gave up your supper for 
Mary’s sake. Love is a reliable bank, dear, and 
you can’t make too many deposits in it. It 
always pays compound interest, and the best of 
it is, it never fails.” 

Nan’s lips opened as if she were about to 
speak, but she closed them again, and sat look- 
ing into the fire very seriously and silently for 
some time. Then the lips parted again, and this 
time the words came, though even now with an 
effort : 

“ I guess you’ll think it’s no credit to me that 
I’m sorry I went. But I am sorry, and I would 
be if it had been the best time in the world. I 
didn’t want to go, really, after you said you’d — 
rather I wouldn’t. I didn’t, honestly. It won’t 
do either of us any good for me to say now that 
I wish I had done as you wanted me to. But I 


296 


MISS WILDFIRE 


do wish it. I’ve hated myself all along for act- 
ing as I did. Now don’t let’s say anything 
more about it — but — but — I wanted you to 
know how I feel.” 

There was an ominous catch in her voice that 
warned Miss Blake not to pursue the subject. 
Nan could humble herself to apologize, but to 
follow the abasement wp by shedding tears on it 
was too much for her dignity, and she fought 
againt it stolidly. 

But the governess knew her well enough by 
this time to feel assured that what she said was 
true, and she accepted the clumsy, halting 
“ amende” as gratefully as if it had been the 
most graceful of acknowledgments. 

“ Dear me,” she broke in, in quite a matter- 
of-fact way. “ Do you know that the small 
hours are getting to be large hours, and we are 
sitting here as unconcernedly as if it were 
just after dinner. Come, let us both get up- 
stairs and to bed as fast as our feet can carry 
us,” and she promptly set the example by ex- 
tinguishing the lamp and helping Nan to 
shoulder her armful of wraps. 

“ Oh, by the way,” she said, as they reached 
the upper hall, and the girl was about to make 


CONSEQUENCES 


297 


return of the hood, “ you may keep it if you 
will. Accept it and the gloves, with my love, 
as a sort of recompense for what other things 
you have missed this evening.” 

Nan was too overcome by the richness of the 
gift to make any response at all for a moment. 
Then she blurted out awkwardly, though in a 
very grateful voice : 

“ You’re so good to me it makes me — ashamed. 
You’re always giving me things. It isn’t right. 
You give away everything you have.” 

Miss Blake lifted her chin and laughed gayly 
over the cleft in it. 

“ No, I don’t,” she returned, tip-toeing to drop 
the gloves, like a blessing, on the girl’s head. 
“ I have one or two things which I keep all for 
myself. But if I like to give presents, do you 
know what it’s a sign of? It’s a sign I’m 
poor. Poor people are always possessed by a 
passion for giving presents. It’s true ! I’ve 
always noticed it ! Good-night !” 

And that was the last Nan heard about the 
affair from Miss Blake. Unfortunately — or 
fortunately — it was not the last she heard of 
it from others, by any means. It was a long, 
long time before it was allowed to drop. 


298 


MISS WILDFIRE 


In the first place, Michael was discharged from 
the stables, and this led to a vast amount of dis- 
cussion, for the poor fellow, who was temperate 
by nature, was thrown out of employment in 
midwinter, and his predicament seemed a pitia- 
ble one to those who really understood the facts 
in the case. 

Miss Blake, when she heard of the affair, had 
bidden John Gardiner bring the man to her. 
She heard his story, and then sent him off with 
a few kindly, encouraging words, and the poor 
fellow felt comforted in spite of the facts that 
she had given him neither money nor any defi- 
nite promise of help. When he had gone she 
sat for some time thinking busily, her chin in 
her palms and her elbows propped on the desk 
in front of her. She was still for so long that 
John and Nan stole off after a while and tried 
experiments with the kodak on some back -yard 
views, and when they came back to Miss Blake’s 
room to ask her opinion on some point of focus 
they found the place deserted and the governess 
gone. 

The next day Mike was discovered sitting 
smilingly enthroned in his accustomed place on 
the lofty box of the livery “ broom-carriage,” 


CONSEQUENCES 


299 


and lie vouchsafed the information to congratu- 
lating friends that: “Ut’s another chanct Oi 
hav, though how Oi come boy ut ye’ll niver 
know anny moar than Oi do mesilf, for Misther 
Allen was that set agin me he wuddn’t hear a 
wurrud Oi’d sa\ But Oi have another chanct 
and ut’s mesilf ’ll see till ut, ut lasts me me 
loife-toime.” 

“ O dear !” complained Ruth to Nan, “ I 
never want to hear the name of sleigh-ride 
again so long as I live. Everywhere I go, they 
say so significantly: ‘We hear you had a very 
gay time the other night ! Well, well ! such 
things wouldn’t have been tolerated when I was 
young!’ and then they make some cutting re- 
mark about Mrs. Cole, and I’m afraid it’s not 
going to be very pleasant for her after this, for 
none of our fathers and mothers want to have 
anything more to do with her. They say her 
example has been so bad. And one can’t have 
a bit of fun nowadays, for we’re all being kept 
on short rations to pay up for the other night.” 

But as the weeks passed the gossip died away 
and then every one breathed freer again. 

Latterly Nan was filling her part of the 
household contract with considerably less ill-will 


300 


MISS WILDFIRE 


than she had shown at the beginning, but even 
now there were occasional lamentations when 
the day was especially enticing, and her spirits 
rose and soared above the pettiness of bed- 
making and the degradation of dusting. It 
took her about twice as long to get through 
with her share of the work as it took Miss 
Blake, and she could never console herself with 
the thought that it was because the governess 
shirked. Occasionally she let her own tasks go 
“ with a lick and a promise,” as Delia described 
it, but when she saw the thoroughness with 
which Miss Blake did even the least important 
thing she had the grace to be ashamed and to 
determine on a better course in the future. But 
before she really settled down to a stricter 
habit of conscientiousness something happened 
that gave her more of an impulse than a course 
of lectures would have done. 

The winter had been a long and unusually 
severe one, but by March it seemed reasonable 
to suppose that its backbone was broken. Nan 
had preferred the care of the conservatory to 
the duller and less interesting work of dish- 
washing, and Miss Blake, in letting her take 
her choice, had only exacted the promise that 


CONSEQUENCES 


301 


her charge was not to be neglected. Nan had, 
as we know, given her hand upon it, and so the 
matter stood. The governess never “ nagged ” 
her about her duties ; she took it for granted 
that the girl would honorably keep her word. 

And indeed for some time she was tolerably 
thorough, watering the plants and loosening the 
soil about their roots ; sponging the leaves of 
the rubber trees and palms and picking off all 
the shriveled leaves and faded petals from the 
flowering shrubs and keeping the temperature at 
as nearly the right degree as was possible with 
such varying weather and their simple device 
for heating the place. 

But she found it was much more of a tax than 
she had first supposed. At the start plants had 
seemed so much more inviting than dishes that 
she had appropriated the care of them at once, 
and now that she discovered what her selection 
really involved she felt almost aggrieved, and 
was inclined to be cross when she saw Miss 
Blake’s tasks finished for the day while her own 
was scarcely more than begun. 

“ Provoking things !” she would declare as 
she dashed a double spray of water on the rub- 
ber trees that did not need it, and gave but a 


302 


MISS WILDFIKE 


mere sprinkle to the blossoming azalias that did : 
“ if I’d known what a nuisance you were I can 
tell you I never would have taken you ! Here ! 
will you come off, or won’t you ?” and she would 
give some wilted blossom a vicious jerk that 
would set the entire plant shaking in its pot as 
though it were trembling with distress at the 
rough treatment it was receiving. If Miss Blake 
heard her she gave no sign. Sometimes when 
they passed a florist’s window she would stop and 
look wistfully in at the bewildering display, and 
Nan would know that she was longing to go in 
and buy some especially fascinating orchid or 
unusually rare crysanthemum. But she would 
not yield to her impulse, for on one occasion the 
girl had said with a shrug of impatience : 

“ For goodness’ sake don’t get any more. It’s* 
all I can do to attend to the bothersome things 
now. I wish they were all in Hong Kong — 
every one of them.” 

So since then there had been no further addi- 
tions to the conservatory, and Miss Blake had to 
check her horticultural ardor or confine it to 
her window-sill upstairs. 

But the plants throve in spite of their ungra- 
cious nursing, and when she was not irritated by 


CONSEQUENCES 


303 


them Nan was very proud of the fine showing 
they made. 

“ I think that double, white azalia is one of 
most beautiful things I ever saw : so pure and 
delicate !” said Mary Brewster to Miss Blake, 
hanging over it in honest admiration one leaden- 
skied day when she come to carry Nan off to her 
house to dinner and was waiting while the girl 
went upstairs to get ready. 

“ Yes,” replied the governess, “ I love it ! But 
then, I love all the dear things — even those poor 
woolly-leaved little primroses that have almost 
less charm for me than any flowers I know. Bin 
so glad they are all doing so well. I can’t bear 
to bring a plant into the house and then have it 
die. It seems almost like murder. But now I 
must run away. I have an appointment with 
my dentist at three. It is very good of you to 
ask Nan to dinner to-night, and I’m doubly glad 
it happens as it does, for she would have to dine 
alone if she stayed at home, for I have to go 
out of town on business and cannot get back to- 
night. Delia will call for Nan at nine o’clock. 
Good-bye, and have a pleasant evening !” and 
she caught up her satchel and was off in a 
twinkling. 


304 


MISS WILDFIRE 


But after she had let herself out of the front 
door she came back and called Nan to the head 
of the stairs. 

“ It's bitterly cold,” she said. “ I had no 
idea it was so severe ! Be sure you wrap up 
warmly, Nan, and don’t forget your gloves and 
leggings when you come home. Oh, and the 
plants! You’ll not fail to look after them 
when you get in — the last thing before you go 
to bed ? I think it will freeze to-night, and 
they will need extra heat. Now, good-bye 
again, and God bless you !” 

Nan waved her a vigorous adieu with the 
towel she held in her hand, and this time the 
governess was off in earnest. 

The two girls followed her out not long 
after, and went laughing and chatting down 
the street. 

“ I’ve asked Grace and Lu and Ruth to come 
in after dinner, and we’re going to have a 
candy-pull. I didn’t ask John, but I told him 
what was up, and he said he and Harley and 
Everett had been wanting to call for some time, 
and as I’d be sure to be in, he thought they 
might as well do it to-night. I told him he’d 
have to ‘ call ’ loud, for we’d be in the kitchen, 


CONSEQUENCES 


305 


and probably wouldn’t hear him, and he said 
he’d see to it that we did ; so I suppose we’ll 
have them too.” 

Among them all it proved a gay evening, and 
seemed unusually so, for of late jollifications 
had been rare. As Ruth said, “ they were all 
kept on short rations to pay up for the other 
night.” 

It appeared to Nan when Delia arrived that 
she had made a mistake in the hour, and had 
appeared at eight instead of nine ; but as it 
happened Delia purposely delayed in order that 
her girl might have an extra sixty minutes, and 
when she pointed to the clock, whose short 
hand pointed to ten, Nan could only shake her 
head, and say: “Well, I suppose so — but it 
doesn’t seem as if it could be.” 

It was so cold that Delia had brought an ad- 
ditional wrap for her, and the girl was glad to 
avail herself of it when she felt the nip of the 
freezing air. 

“ Why, it’s much worse than it was this after- 
noon,” she said. “If this is spring, I’d just as 
lief have winter. I tell you what it is, Delia, it 
won’t take me long to tumble into bed. I’m 
frozen stiff already. I hope you locked up 
20 


306 


MISS WILDFIRE 


before you came out, so all we’ll have to do will 
be to go upstairs. I hate to putter about in 
the cold.” 

It seemed strange to go to bed without Miss 
Blake’s cheery “ Good-night !” ringing in her 
ears. It was the first time the governess had 
spent a night away from home since she first 
came to the house, almost six months ago, and 
Nan devoutly hoped there wouldn’t be a repe- 
tition of the performance in another half-year. 
Her empty room gave one “ les homeseeks.” 

In order to forget it and to escape the cold, 
Nan cut short her preparations for the night 
and got into bed with as little delay as possible. 
She cuddled comfortably between her smooth 
sheets and soft blankets and in a moment was 
soundly asleep. 

When she waked the next morning it was 
with a vague feeling of responsibility, as though 
she had gone to sleep with a weight of some 
calamity on her heart. As she dressed she tried 
to recall it but there was nothing in yesterday’s 
experience to depress her and she ran down to 
breakfast determined to shake off the haunting 
impression. But all through the meal it clung 
to her and she could not get rid of it. To be 


CONSEQUENCES 


307 


especially virtuous in Miss Blake’s absence and 
show her that she was “ dependable,” she took 
the dish-wasliing upon herself and got through 
with it speedily. ' Then up to her room to set 
that in order, and then down to the conservatory 
to attend to the plants. 

It was just as this juncture that Delia heard 
a wild cry of distress ring through the house. 
She ran upstairs in a fright and found Nan 
standing at the threshold of the conservatory 
door gazing in and wringing her hands. The 
sight that met her eyes was a pitiful one. There 
was not one plant among them all that had out- 
lived the night. The leaves of all were frozen 
black. 


CHAPTEE XVIII 


“ Chester newcomb” 

“ Oh, do you think I could ?” demanded Nan, 
eagerly. 

Miss Blake considered a moment. “ I don’t 
see any reason why it might not be arranged.” 

“ It’s right by the sea and Euth says they 
never fuss about clothes down there. Just any- 
thing will do.” 

The governess smiled. “ Nevertheless I 
think you will need a couple of changes. I 
have sometimes been asked to visit country 
houses where ‘ anything would do/ and I’ve 
generally found that it all depends on what one 
understands by ‘ anything/ ” 

“ I can wear a shirt-waist in the morning and 
in the afternoon I can wear a — a — another one,” 
announced Nan. 

Miss Blake laughed. “ You poor child,” she 
said, “ I do believe you haven’t much beside for 
the summer.” 

“You .see,” broke in Nan, shamefacedly, 

308 


“ CHESTER NEWCOMB ” 309 

“ Delia didn’t know anything about styles and I 
didn’t — care, and so we sort of let clothes go. 
It isn’t because father wouldn’t want me to have 
nice things.” 

Miss Blake took her up quickly. “ I know 
it is not. And now we must set to work at once 
to get you properly provided, for you are old 
enough now to ‘ care,’ not necessarily about 
styles, but certainly about making a creditable 
appearance, and I want you to have a suitable 
wardrobe so that you may always keep yourself 
tidy.” 

It seemed to Nan that the wardrobe Miss 
Blake proceeded to provide for her was some- 
thing more than merely “ tidy.” The frocks 
were simple, it is true, but very dainty and 
tasteful, and in her new interest in them and the 
way they were made she quite forgot to complain 
at the extra inch or two which the governess 
caused to be added to the length of the skirts. 

There had been some stormy scenes when the 
winter dresses were being made, Nan insisting 
that she would not wear “ such horrid dangling 
things that were forever getting in her way.” 
She wanted her skirts made short, and if she 
couldn ? t have her skirts made short, etc. 


310 


MISS WILDFIRE 


The skirts had not been made short, and these 
were even longer. Clad in them Nan looked 
very tall and womanly, and Delia realized for 
the first time that her “ baby ” had ceased to be 
a little girl. 

So at last the preparations were completed 
and the girl started off to spend a fortnight 
with Ruth at the Andrews’ beautiful summer 
home by the sea. Then came gay times. Early 
morning dips in the surf; clam-bakes on the 
beach ; long, lazy hours spent on the veranda, 
when the day was too warm for exercise, and 
when it was cooler, fine spins along the hard, 
white sand, for miles beside the shimmering 
sea. 

Nan grew as brown as an Indian, for she 
scorned sliade-hats, and oftenest had nothing on 
her head at all but her own thick thatch of riot- 
ous brown hair. 

Ruth’s brother taught Nan to swim, and she 
entered into it with so much zest that to his sur- 
prise he found his only difficulty lay in trying 
to restrain her. Nothing seemed to daunt her, 
and whatever any one else did she immediately 
wanted to try. 

“ The fact of the matter is,” young Mr. 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


311 


Andrews declared one day, “ you ought to have 
been a boy. You’d make a capital fellow.” 

“ I know it,” admitted Nan, frankly. “ I 
love boys’ sports and pranks, and to think that 
all my life I’ve just got to ‘sit on a cushion and 
sew up a seam.’ It’s perfectly awful.” 

“ Fancy !” exclaimed Miss Webster, a fellow- 
guest, and a young lady whom, by the way, 
Nan regarded with a good deal of disdain, 
because she seemed what John Gardiner called 
“ girly-girly,” and was flirtatious. “ Fancy ! 
Why, I wouldn’t be a man for anything in 
the world ! J ust think what hideous clothes 
they wear.” 

“ Thank you, Miss Webster,” retorted Mr. 
Andrews with mock solemnity. 

“ Oh, I didn’t mean you,” she returned with 
an emphasis and a soft glance of the eyes. “You 
really dress extremely well. I adore your neck- 
ties and your boots are dreams.” 

Helen Andrews tried to hide a scowl of irri- 
tation. Alice Webster was her friend, and 
she disliked having her display herself in 
her worst light. She knew her to be a warm- 
hearted, honorable girl whose gravest fault, 
which, after all, might be only a foible, was her 


312 


MISS WILDFIRE 


tendency to turn coquettish when she was in the 
society of gentlemen. 

Ruth rose and beckoned Nan to follow her. 

“ Isn’t she a lunatic?” she demanded, as soon 
as they were out of ear-shot. 

“ Perfect idiot !” responded Nan. “ I should 
think your brother would just duck her in the 
water some fine day when she’s making those 
sheep’s eyes at him. I would if I were in his 
place.” 

“ Oh, he doesn’t care. He thinks she’s lots 
of fun. Besides, he’s going away to-morrow, 
and won’t see her again unless Helen makes her 
stay longer.” 

“ What’ll she do for some one to make eyes 
at?” 

“ Don’t know. Helen . generally has a lot of 
company, but just now there seems to be a 
famine in the land !” 

Suddenly Nan stood stock still. 

“ What’s the matter ?” demanded Ruth. 

Nan waited a moment, and then bent over 
and whispered something in her ear. 

“ Magnificent ! We’ll do it !” cried Ruth, 
clapping her hands, and breaking into a peal of 
laughter. 


CHESTEK NEWCOMB 


313 




“ Not to-night — while your brother is here !” 
protested Nan. 

“ Of course not. To-morrow though, sure. 
Carl will be gone and the coast clear, and mean- 
while we’ll drill.” 

For the remainder of the day the girls were 
absorbed in something which took them to their 
room and kept them there, and they only ap- 
peared when dinner was announced, and the 
family already seated at the table. 

“ Well, Miss Nan,” Carl Andrews exclaimed, 
“ I wish you were a boy, and I’d take you up 
into the mountains with me and teach you how 
to handle a gun.” 

“ What fun !” cried Nan. 

“ Yes, it would be great sport, and I warrant 
you’d like camp-life, too. It’s just the sort of 
thing that you’d enjoy. Only I’m afraid it 
would agree with you so well that you would 
grow an inch a week, and considering you are 
a girl you’d better not get any taller.” 

“ O dear ! Don’t say that,” groaned Nan, 
“for I probably shall grow lots more as it is. 
You see I’m not quite sixteen yet. Do people 
ever get their growth before they are sixteen, 
Mrs. Andrews?” 


314 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“Oh, sometimes,” replied the lady kindly. 
“ I scarcely think you will grow any more, my 
dear. But I wouldn’t worry about it in any 
case if I were you.” 

“ But I don’t want to tower over everybody,” 
wailed the girl. “ Just think, I’m head and 
shoulders above Miss Blake now !” 

“ But Miss Blake is a ‘pocket Venus !’ Just 
as high as one’s heart,” said Carl Andrews. “ I 
took her home the other night and she barely 
reached to my shoulder.” 

“ Then you and Nan must be about the same 
height !” said Helen. 

Nan made a grimace. 

“ Good rye grows high !” quoted Miss Web- 
ster, good-naturedly. And then the elder Mr. 
Andrews, who was a little deaf, began to talk 
about the crops, probably thinking they had 
been discussing grain, since he heard the word 
“ rye.” 

Early the next morning Carl Andrews started 
off, and the family waved him a vigorous good- 
bye from the veranda steps, and after he had 
gone the different members of the household 
went about their own particular business, and 
did not meet again until luncheon-time. 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


315 


It proved an unusually warm day, and when 
evening came the young people were glad to sit 
quietly on the veranda in the dark and enjoy 
the heartening breeze that swept up from the 
sea. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews had gone, as was 
their custom, out driving immediately after 
dinner, and so the four girls were left to them- 
selves. They were just laughing over Ruth’s 
description of one of Nan’s exploits when the 
maid appeared bearing a letter on a salver. 

“ For Miss Cutler,” she said, and handed it 
to Nan. 

The girl excused herself and hastened in- 
doors to read it. A moment later she called to 
Ruth. 

“ It may be news from home,” surmised 
Helen. “ I hope it’s nothing serious. Her 
father is away ; has been for two years or more. 
I believe they expect him home this fall,” and 
then she and Alice fell to talking of other 
things and Helen was just wishing Carl could 
see her friend in this mood, and know how 
womanly and sensible she could be when sud- 
denly they both stopped talking at the sight of a 
man’s figure coming up the long pathway from 
the outer road. 


316 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Who can it be ?” whispered Helen. 

“ A tramp ?” suggested Miss Webster. 

“ No. A tramp wouldn’t come straight up to 
the house. It must be a caller ; possibly a 
friend of Carl’s,” murmured Helen. 

The stranger came directly toward the ve- 
randa, but at the steps he paused a moment as 
though embarrassed at sight of the two girls 
unexpectedly rising to meet him from out of 
the shadow. 

“ Is Mr. Andrews in ?” he asked, in a low, 
shy voice, and Helen said she was sorry, but 
neither her father nor brother were at home. To 
which did he refer? 

“ To Mr. Carl Andrews,” and then it was ex- 
plained that he and Mr. Carl Andrews were 
great chums. They — 

“ Won’t you take a seat,” asked Helen, hos- 
pitably, and he accepted at once while she in- 
troduced Miss Webster and herself and he gave 
his name as Chester Newcomb. 

“ Oh, yes ; I’ve often heard Carl speak of 
you,” declared Helen, and then she had to ex- 
cuse herself to answer Ruth who was calling to 
her vociferously from upstairs. 

“ I’m afraid Nan has had bad news,” she said, 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


317 


u 




anxiously. “ Excuse me, please. I’ll go and see 
what she wants and be back directly.” 

Mr. Newcomb and Miss Webster fell at once 
into an easy chat. That is, Miss Webster did. 
She rattled on in her least attractive manner, 
and became so absorbed that she only noticed 
how long Helen had been absent when Mr. New- 
comb rose to go and she had not yet returned. 

“ Pray don’t call her,” he entreated. “ She 
probably is very much engaged. I — I am spend- 
ing a couple of weeks here and shall be charmed 
to come again if I may.” 

Miss Webster could only in turn assure him 
that she — that Helen and she would also be 
charmed, and then he bowed himself off, strid- 
ing down the path with a free, somewhat boyish 
swing, and disappearing at length in the shadow 
of the shrubbery. 

He came frequently after that and the girls 
began to chaff Miss Webster about her “ con- 
quest” for he never seemed to care to come 
when the rest were about, but chose such times 
for his calls when he and Alice could stroll in 
the garden after dusk or sit and watch the sea 
and the stars from the shadow of the broad 
veranda. 


318 


MISS WILDFIKE 


It was very romantic and Miss Webster wore 
a dreamy, rapt expression nowadays that sent 
Nan and Ruth off into fits of laughter when 
they were out of the range of her eyes and 
ears. 

“ What a pity it is he can’t be here to see ?” 
gasped Ruth. 

“ Oh, he sees enough, never you fear,” Nan 
assured her. “ When one casts sheep’s eyes 
like that they hit even in the dark ! Poor 
thing ! She is such a goose. Last night when 
he told her he was going to-morrow she grew 
quite tragic and — ” 

“O Nan ! How could you listen ?” cried 
Ruth in a shocked voice but immediately after 
going into another spasm of laughter. 

“ She quotes Shakespeare at him,” gasped 
Nan, convulsed with mirth, and not a bit 
abashed. “ You ought to hear. It’s rich !” 

“ Well, we must see that the coast is clear 
to-night for I s’pose she will be particularly 
touching, and Helen is getting awfully hard to 
manage. It wouldn’t do to interrupt them at 
the last minute just when he was getting pa- 
thetic maybe. I wonder what he’ll do ?” 

“ He’ll be real dignified,” declared Nan, 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


319 


solemnly. “ You wait. He’ll be eloquent even 
if he is ‘ only a boy ’ as she says.” 

So the two girls disappeared utterly after 
dinner, and when Mr. Newcomb arrived he 
found Miss Webster quite alone, for Helen also 
was nowhere to be seen. 

“ She hasn’t been very well lately,” Miss 
Webster explained. “ She looks terribly pale 
and anxious and I’m afraid she has something 
on her mind. Her headaches worry me!” and 
then she fell back into her poor, little artificial 
manner again and sighed and looked senti- 
mental and was altogether “ idiotic ” as Nan 
would have said, and their two low-pitched 
voices could be* heard murmuring away in the 
stillness until poor Helen, who was really half 
sick with a nervous headache upstairs, could 
have cried with irritation and pain. 

She sat up on the bed when Ruth came into 
the room, and attacked her at once. 

“ I can’t stand it another minute. It’s driving 
me wild !” 

. “ Hush ! It’s only to-night. This is the last 
time. Don’t make a scene !” pleaded Ruth. 

“ I’ll never get over it,” wailed Helen. “ It 
simply is the most detestable thing I ever knew. 


320 


MISS WILDFIRE 


In our own house too ! If this weren’t the last 
time I — ” 

What she would do was never discovered for 
just at that moment a shrill scream ran through 
the night, followed by the exclamation in a 
familiar voice : 

“ Great Scott ! My wig !” 

And Ruth and Helen rushed below to find 
Miss Webster in a state of collapse on one of 
the veranda settees and Nan standing over her, 
clad in complete male attire, and fanning her 
frantically with a curly, blonde wig which she 
wrenched by force from the trellis where it had 
inadvertently caught. 

“ I was just leaning back and being beauti- 
ful, and it got hooked on a wire or something, 
and when I went to get uj) it stayed there and 
gave me away !” she promptly explained. 

Then there was a scene. 

Miss Webster wept! Nan lamented ! Ruth 
laughed, and Helen scolded, and no one heard 
a word any one else was saying. 

But after a time every one grew calmer. 

“ O Helen ! I’ve made such a fool of my- 
self/’ cried Alice abjectly. “ How can you 
ever respect me again ?” 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


321 


u 


» 


“ Respect you ? Think of me!” sobbed Helen. 
“ Can you ever forgive me for knowing it all 
this time and letting it go on ? Nan, you 
wretched girl, come here this minute and beg 
Miss Webster’s pardon. Ruth Andrews, this is 
your work, Miss ! See what you have done, 
and in your own house, too !” 

But at this time Alice surprised them all. 
She put a gentle hand on Helen’s arm and said 
quite simply, and with a touching dignity : 

“ Please don’t ask anybody to beg my pardon. 
I deserved the lesson ! The girls needn’t say a 
word. I — I — I am a goose, but I’ll really try 
to be better, and the kindest thing they can do 
is never to refer to it again.” 

The rare tears sprang to Nan’s eyes, and 
she grasped Miss Webster’s hand in a grip that 
hurt. 

“ You’re downright fine !” she said, “ and I’ll 
never forget you as long as I live.” 

And then she had to beat a hasty retreat to 
escaj^e Mr. Andrews and his wife, who were just 
driving up to the door. 

But the secret leaked out, and she and Ruth 
were reprimanded sharply by Mrs. Andrews 
who, for once in her life, turned severe and 
21 


322 


MISS WILDFIRE 


called them sternly to account, and it was Alice 
Webster herself who interceded for them, and 
begged that everything be forgiven and for- 
gotten. 

They were her devoted slaves after that, and 
Nan, whose fortnight had been extended, at 
the Andrews' request, to a month, took especial 
delight in fetching and carrying for her to the 
close of her stay, and in every possible manner 
making her feel how sincerely she regarded 
and respected her. 

As for Miss Webster, she seemed like another 
girl. In fact, Carl Andrews declared that he had 
never known what a “ good sort ” she was and 
said he was mighty glad they had prevailed upon 
her to stay. 

He never knew why the mere mention of his 
friend, Chester Newcomb's name should cause 
such a convulsion in the household, and when 
that gentleman finally arrived, and the family 
met him for the first time, it certainly seemed 
strange that they should all redden and stam- 
mer as if they had been “ awkward nursery 
children appearing at dinner." 

Nan especially could not be induced to have 
anything to say when he was near, and when 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


323 


Carl discovered this he took a mischievous de- 
light in forcing her into his conrpany and 
watching her try to “squirm” out of it again. 
Miss Webster took pity on her and in the sim- 
plest, most natural way came to her rescue 
whenever she was being victimized, and by and 
by it became apparent even to Carl himself that 
“ Clies and Miss Webster hit it off first-rate.” 

But at last Nan’s visit really drew to a close, 
and, in spite of her reluctance at leaving these 
good friends, she felt satisfied to go home — she 
did not stoj) to ask herself why. 

Town seemed very stuffy and tame after the 
freedom of the country and the sea, but when 
Miss Blake asked her if she would like to go 
away again she replied : “Not alone,” and then 
blushed shamefacedly and tried to change the 
subject. 

While she was gone the governess had com- 
mitted an extravagance. She had bought a 
new bicycle. 

“What under the sun did you do that for?” 
demanded Nan. “ Your other was a beauty and 
as good as new.” 

“ But it wasn’t new,” suggested Miss Blake, 
lamely. 


324 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ Pooh !” sniffed Nan. 

“ I wanted this year’s model.” 

“ Oh, very well ! If you can be as particular 
as all that ! How much did they allow you on 
the other machine ? I hope you made a good 
bargain,” said Nan: 

“ I didn’t let them have the other machine,” 
hesitated Miss Blake. “ It didn’t seem worth 
while. Besides I may want to use it myself 
sometimes. Won’t you come down and see the 
new one ?” 

Of course Nan did not delay, and she went 
into raptures over the beautiful wheel, praising 
it generously as she examined every point with 
the eye of a connoisseur. 

“ But it seems to me a pretty high frame !” 
she speculated, standing off and taking it in 
from a distance. 

“ I wanted a high frame,” responded Miss 
Blake. 

“ Seems to me pretty well up in the air for 
you, even with the saddle down,” insisted Nan, 
doubtfully. 

“ You try it,” suggested the governess. “If 
it suits you it will certainly be too high for me.” 

“ It does suit me,” announced Nan, balancing 


“ CHESTER NEWCOMB ” 325 

herself by a hand against the wall. “You’d 
better send it back and get a lower frame.” 

But Miss Blake shook her head. 

“ No, I like this and I’m going to keep it. 
But of course if it is too high I can’t use it, and 
so — so — I’m afraid you’ll have to, Nan. You 
won’t mind, will you ? I mean getting your 
birthday present this way ahead of time? I 
thought if we waited you’d lose the whole 
summer.” 

Nan flung herself from the wheel in a rap- 
ture of surprise. It seemed too good to be true. 
She could not believe it. Miss Blake had her 
thanks more in the girl’s radiant delight than 
in the mere words she spoke, though these were 
genuine enough and full enough of gratitude. 

All through the long season after that, when- 
ever the heat was not too intense, Nan and her 
wheel could have been seen flashing through 
the Park or taking a well-earned rest in the cool 
shadow of the Dairy porch, where a sip of 
water seemed sweeter than ambrosia and a fugi- 
tive breeze more aromatic than any zephyr from 
Araby the blest. 

Sometimes she and Miss Blake took longer 
trips into the country, and then the governess 


326 


MISS WILDFIRE 


had to be constant in her warnings to her against 
her reckless fashion of riding. Again and again 
she spoke, and Nan always meant to take heed 
and then always forgot, and fell back into her 
old way once more. 

“ I can’t resist such a coast as that was,” she 
would plead. “ And if I got off for every old 
man who thinks he has the right to the road I’d 
be dismounting all the while.” 

“I beg you not to take such risks,” Miss 
Blake would rejoin. “ It simply spoils my ride 
for me, Nan, to see you so reckless. Such head- 
long wheeling has nothing to recommend it. It 
is neither expert nor admirable. When you 
fling along so blindly you are merely doing a 
foolish, heedless thing and running serious risks. 
I am sure you will come to grief some day.” 

“ Don’t you worry ! I am as much at home 
in my saddle as I would be in a rocking-chair. 
See me ride without touching the handle-bars !” 

And presently she would lose all recollection 
of her good resolve, and go hurling on at a 
break-neck speed in the van of some skittish 
horse, or slowly zig-zag ahead in the path of 
some stolid coachman, causing him to anathema- 
tize all wheelmen in general and this especially 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


327 




provoking specimen in particular, while her 
watching companion held her breath in tremb- 
ling alarm. 

At last Miss Blake told Nan decidedly that 
unless she were willing to ride properly she must 
give it up altogether. 

“ I cannot stand this strain any longer,” she 
said, in real distress. 

She and Mrs. Newton and the girl herself 
were taking their first ride in company since the 
early summer. Now it was autumn, and the 
leaves were turning. Mrs. Newton had just 
come back from the country, and Nan was eager 
to display her skill, which she felt had improved 
not a little since their neighbor’s departure. 

The fresh wind, keen and bracing as it came 
from the sea, filled her with a sense of new 
strength and energy, and she felt the effect of 
the invigorating atmosphere in her blood. A 
scent of burning leaves was in the air, and the 
indescribable suggestion of coming winter gayety. 
To-day the road was crowded with carriages. 
They thronged the fashionable drive, and lent it 
a peculiarly animated aspect. Equestrians and 
wheelmen were also out in full force, and the 
presence of so many people set Nan’s blood 


328 


MISS WILDFIRE 


tingling with excitement. She tossed her head 
hack, as the governess uttered her decision, with 
the impatience of a mettlesome horse. 

“ Now remember !” warned Miss Blake. 

Perhaps it was just this extra little warning 
that proved too much for Nan’s overcharged, 
headstrong spirit — or perhaps she did not hear 
in the midst of the noise of hoofs and wheels 
about them. 

They were spinning noiselessly along the 
outer edge of the driveway leading from the 
Park entrance to the cycle path, when suddenly 
Nan gave a quick run forward and then made 
a swift dart for the other side, weaving peril- 
ously in and out among the horses and moving 
vehicles, dexterously dodging, veering, and 
turning until Miss Blake’s heart throbbed 
thickly from dread and her pulses beat heavily 
in her temples. 

“ I must overtake her,” she cried to her com- 
panion. “ She will be killed ! I must save 
her!” 

Even as she spoke her breath caught in a 
short gasp, and she turned suddenly rigid and 
ashen white. 

Coming up the road at full speed was a horse, 


CHESTER NEWCOMB 


329 




whose driver, sitting close over its haunches in 
his narrow sulky, was racing his animal against 
one similarly driven and urging it on to its ut- 
most pace for winning honor. 

At his approach a clear path was made for 
him by the turning right and left of the throng 
— by all save Nan. 

She heard a man’s voice shout hoarsely to 
her. The oncoming horse had the speed of a 
racer. 

A spirit of mad defiance possessed her. She 
steered straight as an arrow before her. Then, 
like a flash, she veered, dodging from under the 
horse’s very nose. She had accomplished her 
feat very cleverly. 

But alas, for Nan ! 

Even as she sped on, full of the exquisite 
thrill of exultation in her own prowess she heard 
behind her the sound of a dull, fear-thickened 
cry. Then a sudden confusion of voices and 
the cessation of rolling wheels. She stopped 
and turned. 

The onward sweep of the mass of vehicles had 
been instantaneously checked. The road was 
clear for some rods before her and in the centre 
of this open space lay — a broken bicycle. 


330 


MISS WILDFIRE 


A little group of men crowded close about 
some central object on the ground. Women 
were wringing their hands and weeping hys- 
terically, and one woman — it was Mrs. Newton 
— was crying wildly, 

“ Let me go to her ! Let me go !” 

The circle of men upon the ground made way, 
and then Nan saw what it was around which 
they knelt. 

She gave a quick, fierce cry of pain. 

The little governess lay quite still and motion- 
less. Her eyes were closed ; her face was white 
as marble. All her bright hair was lying loose 
about her temples — and it was streaked with 
blood. 



THE LITTLE GOVERNESS LAY QUITE STILL AND MOTIONLESS 

(Page 330.) 






CHAPTER XIX 


IN MISS BLAKE’S BOOM 

Nan never forgot that scene. It seemed to 
her afterward, that even in the midst of the 
horror that almost stupefied her and made her 
blind, it had been indelibly photographed upon 
her brain to the merest detail with torturing 
distinctness. 

She could see Mrs. Newton’s drawn, livid 
face, and the stern, set expression of the men 
who gathered about in knots here and there 
discussing the accident in whispers, or arrang- 
ing the best means of getting back to town. A 
doctor, who happened to be near at hand, had 
sprung forward at the first moment of alarm, 
and he and a strange, kind-faced woman were 
together bending over the prostrate form be- 
tween them, while over all arched the high 
dome of the blue October sky, beyond them 
stretched the level road, narrowing in the dis- 
tance to a point that seemed to pierce the sea, 
and on either side spread the branches of 

331 


332 


MISS WILDFIRE 


bordering maple trees, each shining brilliant 
and gorgeous in the autumn sunlight. 

Presently, in response to a demand from the 
doctor, a low-hung carriage drew out from the 
ranks of waiting vehicles, and into it was lifted, 
oh, so carefully ! the inert form of the governess, 
and her head laid upon Mrs. Newton’s lap. 

Nan pressed close to the wheels. 

“ Can’t I go with her ?” she whispered. 

Her companion gazed at her blankly for a 
moment. Then she seemed to realize the ques- 
tion, and answered it. 

“ No,” she replied. “ Get my machine, and 
— and hers, and see that some one carries them 
back for us — some man will do it.” 

Then without another word she turned her 
head away, and slowly, slowly the carriage * 
moved and began its snail’s-pace journey town- 
ward. 

Nan looked helplessly about her. 

“ Won’t some one take the bicycles home ?” 
the pleaded. 

She never knew who performed the office. 
She never cared. She gave some stranger her 
address without the slightest interest as to 
whether he was trustworthy or no, and then, 


IN MISS BLAKE’S ROOM 


333 


mounting her own machine, she sped home as 
fast as the wheels would turn. 

Thus it was that when the dreary little caval- 
cade reached home at last everything was in 
readiness for its reception. 

There was no difficulty nor delay in getting 
upstairs, and in an incredibly short time the 
place had assumed the air of hushed solemnity 
that always seems to overhang the spot where 
illness is. 

Nan crouched outside the threshold of the 
sick-room and listened to the low sounds within 
with a feeling of overwhelming guilt at her 
heart. She dared not go in. 

At last the door was opened, and the physi- 
cian stepped forward. He saw Nan cowering 
* in the gloom. 

“ What is this ?” he asked kindly. 

Nan dragged herself up painfully, as though 
her limbs had been made of lead. 

“ Have I — have I — killed her ?” she managed 
to gasp. 

The doctor bent on her a pitying look. 

“ Killed her ?” he repeated. “ I do not know 
what you mean. Do you mean will she die ? 
No, my child, not if we can help it — and God 


334 


MISS WILDFIKE 


grant we may. But it may be long, very long, 
before she is well. She has been badly hurt, 
poor little soul !” 

Then followed a term of harrowing suspense. 
Nights when Nan thought the sun had for- 
gotten how to rise — so long they seemed and 
never ending. 

The fever that followed the first season of 
lethargy raged fierce and hot for many a day, 
and the delirium that accompanied it was diffi- 
cult to quell. It seemed at times as though it 
must burn the patient’s very life away. It was 
during these days that Nan learned how much 
she had caused her friend to suffer. What, in 
her moments of consciousness, she had never 
permitted to pass her lips, now in these hours of 
delirium she dwelt on and repeated over and 
over. It was of Nan, always of Nan that she 
spoke. 

Nan must have this ; Nan must not do that. 
It was her duty to protect Nan and guard her. 
She followed the girl in perilous journeys ; she 
tried to guide her from dangerous courses. She 
betrayed her anxious care for her in every word 
she uttered. And then sometimes she would 
say something that Nan could not comprehend. 


in miss blare’s room 


335 


“ Florence’s child !” she would murmur. 
“ Florence’s child !” and then she would catch 
herself back with a sudden look of fear as 
though she had betrayed a secret. 

“ My mother’s name was Florence,” Nan 
would say brokenly. “ But I don’t know what 
she means. She never knew my mother.” 

At last came a change, and then Nan was ex- 
cluded from the room. 

“ You might excite her, and she must be care- 
fully guarded against any chance of that,” the 
doctor said in explanation. 

But Nan was almost too happy to care. The 
first sound of the low, sweet voice speaking in- 
telligently sent a thrill of passionate gratitude to 
her heart. 

How she and Delia plotted and planned for 
the invalid. How Nan made the room to fairly 
blossom with the flowers that daily came pour- 
ing in from all manner of strange and un- 
expected sources. 

“ I never knew she had such lots of friends,” 
the girl said one day to Delia. 

The woman looked down at her with a flash 
of superior understanding in her eyes. 

“ She’s a wise one,” she said. “ She goes her 


336 


MISS WILDFIRE 


own way, and it’s little she asks of any one and 
it’s less she says. But what she does ain’t little, 
I can tell you, Nan. I know of many a thing 
she’s done for those who, if they haven’t got 
money, have the grateful hearts in them to re- 
member kindness and to love the one that shows 
it to them. Some day you’ll know her for what 
she is, and then you’ll never strive against her 
any more and you’ll love her as many another 
has done before you.” 

The girl gazed straight into the woman’s eyes. 

“ I love her now, Delia,” she said. “ I’ve 
loved her from the first minute — only I didn’t 
know it some of the time and the rest I was a 
horrid — little — beast, so there !” 

Oh, the happy days that Nan spent in that 
quiet room above stairs. How she grew to 
love it ! The sunshine coming through the cur- 
tains and making great patches of mellow light 
upon the floor seemed more bright here than 
anywhere else. If it rained, this place was less 
dreary than any other, and in sun or storm it 
was the only spot that Nan felt had the power to 
quell her wayward mood when it rose against 
her will and urged her back to her hoydenish 
exploits once more. 


m miss blake’s room 


337 


Miss Blake, lying back against her snowy 
pillows, had a look of such inexpressible sweet- 
ness to Nan that often and often the girl would 
fling herself beside the bed with her arms about 
the fragile figure, crying : 

“ Oh, you dear, you dear ! how I love you !” 
and then the other, with a very happy smile 
would invariably answer, “ And I you, Nan.” 

It was all understood between them now. 
Pardon had been humbly asked and freely 
granted, and there was now only the remaining 
regret of impending separation ; the dread of 
the parting that was to come. 

At one time they had thought that it would 
occur within a few weeks’ time, and the joy that 
Nan felt in her father’s return was overshadowed 
by the grief she experienced in the coming loss 
of her friend. 

But now the date of Mr. Cutler’s home-coming 
had been postponed. He would leave Bombay 
as he had at first intended, but business would 
detain him in London, and he could not expect 
to reach home until that was completed — so Mr. 
Turner said. 

Thus Nan had to reconcile herself to her dis- 
appointment and the indefiniteness of her 
22 


338 


MISS WILDFIRE 


father’s return, in the thought that if her meet- 
ing with him was deferred, why, so was her 
parting from Miss Blake. 

The weeks that passed before the governess 
was fairly convalescent had brought them well 
into November. They had been busy, helpful 
weeks for Nan. In her thought for her friend’s 
comfort she had unconsciously learned a lesson 
in gentleness and patience that nothing else 
could have taught her. Her voice grew lower, 
her step lighter, and the touch of her fingers 
more delicate. All this could never have been 
accomplished in such a short space by ordinary 
means, but Love is a magical teacher and he in- 
structed her in his art. 

As the dear invalid grew stronger Nan tried 
to beguile the long hours by reading aloud to 
her from her favorite authors, sage philosophers, 
wise poets, and tender tale-tellers. Sometimes 
she did not at all comprehend the meaning of 
the pages she read, but Miss Blake was always 
ready to give her “a lift” over the hardest 
places, and to her surprise she grew really to 
love these serious books, and to get an insight 
into the beauty of their character. 

Once in awhile she would take up the daily 


IN MISS BLAKE’s ROOM 


339 


paper to give her friend an idea of “ what was 
going on in the world/' seriously reading discus- 
sions about this “ bill” or that “ question” with 
absolutely no conception of what the whole thing 
was about. 

One day, it was during the last of November, 
she sat before the fire in the governess' room 
feeling especially contented and placidly happy. 
Miss Blake, safely ensconced among her cush- 
ions, was cozily sipping a cup of bouillon. 

The room was very still. 

Suddenly Nan jumped to herfeet, and, clasping 
her hands high over her head, said, with a luxu- 
rious sort of yawn : 

“ Oh — my ! How I'm liking it nowadays. 
Things are so sort of sweet and cozy. Do you 
s'pose it's too good to last? Do you s'pose it 
has anything to do with my trying to be good 
and not letting my ‘ angry passions rise' ? ” 

The governess nodded her head, but made no 
other reply and after an instant Nan slipped to 
the floor again, and, sitting Turk-fashion beside 
her companion's knee, considered how possible 
it would have been for Miss Blake to have taken 
that occasion to lecture her on the past error of 
her ways. But she had learned that it was not 


340 


MISS WILDFIRE 


the governess’ way to preach. That nod was as 
eloquent as a sermon to Nan, and she understood 
it perfectly. 

“ Shall I read you something from 1 The 
Tribune ’ ?” she asked, after a moment’s musing. 
And she took up the paper and began searching 
for the editorial page. When she had found 
it she set about reading the first leader that 
came to hand, quite regardless of whether it 
would prove interesting to her auditor or not. 
The fact that it was unintelligible to her seemed 
a sort of guarantee, in her mind, that it would 
be interesting to Miss Blake. She read on and 
on until both her breath and the column itself 
came to a stop. 

“You poor child,” said the governess affec- 
tionately. “ Don’t read another word of that. 
How stupid it must be for you. Here, take this 
book of dear Mary Wilkins. We can both of 
us understand her, and she will do us both good. 
You need not victimize yourself a moment 
longer, dear Nannie.” 

But Nan, radiant with good humor, felt a sort 
of glory in just such self-victimizing. She 
searched through the page for further unintelli- 
gible text. 


in miss blake’s room 


341 


All at once she paused and read a few lines 
to herself. Then she burst into a laugh. 

“ Here’s something about a man who has such 
a funny name. It’s James Murty, alias Dan 
Divver, alias Shaughnessy. Wliat a last name 
— Shaughnessy ! And why was he called alias 
twice over, Miss Blake? I didn’t know one 
could have the same name more than once. It 
seems awfully expensive — I mean extravagant.” 

Miss Blake laughed. 

“You are thinking of Elias, Nan. This 
man’s name is not Elias. Alias is pronounced 
differently, and is not a name at all, but a word 
signifying otherwise, or otherwise called. It 
means that the man has gone under those dif- 
ferent titles. And I don’t think I care to hear 
what it has to say about the gentleman, dear. 
He probably isn’t just the sort of person whose 
exploits would make fair reading.” 

“ Is he bad ?” asked Nan. 

“ I should gather, from his names, that his 
existence had been somewhat checkered,” re- 
plied the governess with a twinkle in her eye. 

“ Is it wicked to go under other names than 
your own ?” 

Miss Blake flushed as she bent forward to 


342 


MISS WILDFIRE 


place her empty cup upon the table by her side. 
She was far from strong yet ; the slightest 
exertion brought the blood to her cheeks. 

“ Not necessarily,” she said. “ But as a general 
rule people whose lives have been simple and 
upright do not need to live under an assumed 
name. Of course there might be exceptional 
cases — and there is a difference between an alias 
and an incognito.” 

“ What’s an incognito?” questioned Nan. 

“Why, if a person of rank or importance 
travels through a country and wishes to escape 
publicity, he often does so incognito — that is, 
unknown. He will drop his official title and 
take his family name or part of his family name 
with a simple prefix. For instance, a king might 
care to be known as the Duke of So-and-so ; a 
Duke as Mr. — , whatever his surname chanced 
to be. That would not be wicked and it would 
not be an alias. And sometimes people who are 
not nobles find it desirable to remain unrecog- 
nized for a time. Take it for granted that I was 
not, in reality, a governess at all ; I mean that I 
was not forced by circumstances to take such a 
position, but that I for some reason chose to 
assume it. That I cared to come here and be 


m miss blake’s boom 


343 


with you because I had known and loved your 
parents long ago and wished to do my best for 
their child. Then suppose I did not care to 
disclose my identity to — to — people because of 
— well, no matter — I simply came here giving 
you but part of my name — not the whole, why 
it might not be a wise course, but it certainly 
could not be called a wicked.” 

“ Oh, how I wish you had,” cried Nan. “ It 
would be splendid fun. Just like a princess in 
disguise and things. Say you aren’t a governess 
and that your name isn’t Blake. Oh, please do. 
It’ll be just like fairy-stories if you will.” 

“ How can I, dear, when I am and it is ?” re- 
plied the governess, slowly. “ I am no princess 
in disguise, I assure you. I am simply a very 
prosaic little woman and your devoted friend. I 
don’t think I could possibly discover anything at 
all resembling a fairy-tale in my life. But some 
time, perhaps, when you are older, and when — I 
mean, if we meet again, I will tell you all there is 
to tell about myself — that is, if you care to listen. 
It will not be exciting — but you might care to 
know it.” 

“ Oh, I would, I would !” the girl exclaimed 
heartily. “ But I hate to have you talk of ‘ if we 


344 


MISS WILDFIRE 


meet again.’ Why, we must, Miss Blake. Don’t 
you know I couldn’t live and know I wasn’t to 
see you any more ? It’s like the most awful 
thing that could happen to have you go way at 
all, and the only way I can bear it is thinking 
of how we’ll see each other often and often. 
Why, my father will be so thankful to you for 
taking such care of me! I guess he won’t know 
what to do. And when you see him and find how 
good he is, you won’t be afraid a bit. You’ll just 
as lief stay here as not. He’s the best, the dear- 
est — oh, you couldn’t help but like my father.” 

A soft hand patted her head in loving appre- 
ciation, but not one word said the governess, and 
the two sat together in silence for some time 
thinking rather sober thoughts, until the sound 
of the door-bell broke in upon the stillness and 
brought Nan to her feet and sent her flying to 
the balusters to peep over and discover who 
the late caller might be. 

“ It’s Mr. Turner, and he asked for you,” she 
said, coming back into the room and bending to 
gather up the scattered news sheets that strewed 
the floor. “ He looked as solemn as an owl, and 
he asked for you in a voice that made me feel 
ever so queer — it was so trembly.” 


IN MISS BLAKE’S ROOM 


345 


“ He may be cold,” suggested Miss Blake. 

She rose and settled the pillows upon the 
divan. She would have to receive her guest up 
here. She was not yet permitted to venture 
below. She and Nan stood ready to receive 
him as he entered the room, and after the first 
greetings the girl was about to sit down beside 
her friend when the lawyer said abruptly : 

“ My dear, I must ask you to permit me to 
talk to Miss Blake alone to-day. I have some 
private business to transact with her. You will 
pardon me for asking you to leave us.” 

Nan rose immediately with a smile of good- 
natured understanding, but as she turned to leave 
the room she saw that the face of the governess 
was deathly white, and she ran back to her, 
crying : 

“ What is it ; oh, what is it ? Are you faint ? 
Let me get you something.” 

She was in a sudden bewilderment of alarm. 
Miss Blake gently put her aside, saying calmly, 

“ Why, nothing is the matter, Nan. Nothing 
at all, my dear. I am strong and well now, you 
know. Quite strong and well. You must not 
make Mr. Turner think I am ill, else he will go 
away again, and I shall not know what he has 


346 


MISS WILDFIRE 


to say to me. I am quite able to hear — what- 
ever it is. So go away, dear.” 

The girl obeyed, and the next moment the 
door had closed behind her, and only the sound 
of her voice from without, singing in happy re- 
assurance, broke the stillness of the room where 
the lawyer and the governess stood facing each 
other silently. 


CHAPTER XX 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 

Mr. Turner was the first to speak. “ Sit 
down,” he said kindly. “ You must not stand.” 

Miss Blake sank into her place upon the divan, 
but she did not lean back. She sat stiffly up- 
right, nervously locking and unlocking her fin- 
gers in her lap and compressing her lips tightly, 
but asking no questions — -saying no word. 

The lawyer drew a chair beside her and 
slowly, deliberately seated himself in it. 

“ You remember,” he began at length, in a 
hesitating sort of way, “ that I told you some 
time ago that I had some reason to fear that 
affairs were not prospering at Bombay. I wish 
to come to the point at once ; to spare you all 
suspense. I am afraid Mr. Cutler is in some 
serious difficulty, and — ” 

He paused. The governess leaned forward, 
and her breath came quickly. 

“ Go on,” she whispered. 

“ For some time past his letters have been 

347 


348 


MISS WILDFIRE 


most unsatisfactory. He has seemed depressed 
and discouraged. What word I have received 
from him during the past few months has been 
of such a character as to lead one to form the 
gravest suspicions. His letters have been short 
and hurried — written, evidently, under great 
mental strain. And latterly they have ceased 
altogether. For the last two months, ever since 
you have been ill, I have heard literally nothing 
from him. His plan was to leave Bombay in 
September. That he kept to his original pur- 
pose I have no reason to doubt. He was on the 
steamer, or, at least, his name was on its pas- 
senger list. Of course while you were so ill I 
could say nothing to you of this — besides I had 
only my suspicions then. But as time passed, 
and no communication from him reached me I 
grew apprehensive. Within the last two weeks 
I have sent numberless dispatches to him to his 
London address, but not one of them has re- 
ceived a reply — in fact, no one of them has been 
delivered to him. The people there do not 
know where he is. I have cabled to Bombay, 
thinking lie might have been detained there un- 
expectedly, but that, too, has proved of no avail. 
The Bombay house know nothing of his where- 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 


349 


abouts. He left them as he intended to do in 
September, and since then they have heard 
from him as little as I.” 

Miss Blake’s eager eyes seemed to search the 
lawyer through and through. He shifted un- 
easily in his place. 

“ It is very difficult to go on,” he said, with a 
nervous, constrained cough. 

“ Quick ! Quick !” whispered the governess. 
“ Tell me everything now — this minute. Tell 
me ! Tell me !” 

“ There is little more to tell,” said Mr. 
Turner sadly. “ This afternoon I received a wire 
from his London banker, and it seems — that — 
he, William Cutler, is — is — dead.” 

There was a low cry. Miss Blake had leaped 
to her feet at his words, and now she was sway- 
ing forward as though too faint to stand. The 
lawyer sprang forward to save her from falling, 
but she pushed him away with both hands 
almost savagely. 

“ No, no !” she gasped. “ I am strong. I am 
strong. But — God pity us ! My poor little Nan 
* — and — oh, my poor little Nan !” 

She sank back upon the divan and buried her 
face in her outstretched arms. 


350 


MISS WILDFIRE 


The lawyer rose and went to the window. 

Outside the wind blew drearily. The bare 
trees showed but dimly through the gathering 
dusk. It was a bleak, cold outlook. Presently 
down the street came a man with a lighted 
torch and set the gas-flames to flickering in 
every lamp along his way. 

Mr. Turner watched him until he had passed 
out of sight — then he turned about and came 
back to the sofa once more. 

Miss Blake had raised her head and sat 
staring blankly before her, dry-eyed, but with 
an expression far sadder than tears; the dull, 
lifeless look of helpless misery that has not yet 
been touched with submission. 

“ Shall I leave you now ?” asked the lawyer 
softly. “ Perhaps you would rather be alone. I 
can come again — whenever you wish. Perhaps 
it would be better for me to come again when 
you are stronger — better able to bear it.” 

She turned her large eyes upon him in a sort 
of mute supplication. All the light had gone 
out of them now. Mr. Turner reseated himself 
and continued : 

“ He died in a hospital in London of a malig- 
nant fever. No one saw him. He was buried 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 


351 


within twenty-four hours, I presume according 
to the law in such cases. Of course, I have 
no particulars, only the barest outline of facts. 
Undoubtedly I shall receive a letter by the next 
steamer, giving details. It is all desperately 
sad — heart-breakingly sad. Poor fellow ! So 
young and to die alone among strangers.’ , 

Miss Blake stretched out her hands suppli- 
catingly. 

“ Don’t,” she pleaded. 

“ Shall I tell Nan ?” Mr. Turner asked after 
a moment. “ Perhaps it would be better if I 
should. You have undergone enough.” 

“ No, no !” she cried. “ No one must tell her 
but myself. But first I must talk to you about 
— about — you know when I came here I had 
reasons for wishing her not to know who I was. 
Now I will tell her. There is no more need to 
withhold anything. Delia always knew — from 
the first — but she never told Nan and she never 
would have told. Bat that is all over now. 
There is no need for secrecy any more. And 
I will stay with her. I will keep her with me 
always. She has no one else now, and I — I 
— I am free to do as I please. If — if he has 
left her unprovided for, why, that shall make 


352 


MISS WILDFIRE 


no difference to her. I have plenty and -she 
shall share it with me. She shall never feel the 
care or want of anything that I can supply. 
Ah, Mr. Turner, I am glad I came. It has 
been hard, but I am glad I came.” 

She broke down completely. Her frail figure 
shook with shuddering sobs. 

But she was not a woman to give way long, 
and in a moment she regained her self-control. 

“I must have time to think,” she said. 
“ Everything seems so changed and strange. I 
scarcely know where I stand. The suddenness 
of it has been so horrible. I suppose he must 
have been ill for a long time — too ill to write. 
And by and by when they took him to the hos- 
pital he must have been unconscious, and so 
they could not communicate with his friends. 
T&at would account for it all, his not writing 
nor receiving the dispatches — and his friends 
not knowing where he was.” 

Mr. Turner nodded. Then he rose. 

“I will leave you now,” he said. “ You are 
completely worn out. If you will take my 
advice you will defer telling Nan until to- 
morrow. I fear the strain will prove too great 
for you.” 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 353 

She smiled faintly. ' 

“ Oh, no,” she replied. ; “ I am stronger than 
you think. But the child shall not be told to- 
night. I will leave her in peace for one night 
longer. I will let her get one more good night’s 
rest. Then to-morrow, when she is refreshed 
and strengthened by her sleep she can learn it 
all.” 

The lawyer held oijt his hand. “ This has 
been one of the hardest trials of my life,” he 
said. “But you have helped me by your 
bravery and fortitude. I thank you from my 
heart. Good night !” and in a moment he was 
gone. 

That evening Miss Blake bade Delia take 
Nan to the Andrews’. She wrote a short note 
to Ruth’s mother in which she begged her to 
keep the girl through the evening and make 
her as happy as she could. She briefly stated" 
the reason for her request. 

Nan knew that something was being kept 
from her but she never suspected what. She 
fancied it must be connected with Miss Blake’s 
private affairs, and she asked no questions. When 
she reached the Andrews’ her exuberant spirits 
reasserted themselves and she spent a gay even- 
23 


354 


MISS WILDFIRE 


ing with Ruth, Mrs. Andrews leading in the 
fun and seeing that no one passed a dull mo- 
ment. They played all sorts of games, and then 
finally Bridget appeared with the crowning 
delight, a tray upon which a tempting array of 
good things was set forth. How Nan enjoyed 
it ! She often thought afterward what a happy 
evening it was. At ten o’clock Delia called for 
her and she went home through the still night, 
thinking all sorts of merry thoughts. Miss 
Blake listened with apparent interest to her de- 
scription of her evening’s jollification, and when 
she had finished gave her an especially tender 
good-night kiss, saying : 

“ God bless you, my Nan. Sleep well, dear, 
and let us both pray for strength to hear God’s 
will.” 

The next morning after breakfast Nan dis- 
covered why Miss Blake had bade her especially 
to pray for strength. 

Poor child ! She felt so utterly weak and 
helpless in her misery. At first sh£ could 
scarcely realize what had befallen her and she 
kept insisting, “ It isn’t my father that has died. 
It is some one else. How can I feel that he isn’t 
alive ? He can’t be dead ! He isn’t ! He isn’t ! 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 


355 


Why, only yesterday I was expecting he would 
soon he home. It’s some other man who hasn’t 
got a daughter that loves him so.” 

But by and by she grew desperate in her 
wretchedness and then it took all Miss Blake’s 
influence to . restrain her from really wearing 
herself out in the abandon of her grief. 

But by evening the house was quiet. Nan’s 
loud sobbing had ceased and she lay quite still 
and exhausted, stretched upon the divan in 
Miss Blake’s room, with her throbbing head in 
the governess’ lap. A tender hand stroked her 
disheveled hair, a tender voice spoke words of 
comfort to her, arnd she was soothed and solaced 
by both. 

“ Shall I tell you a story, Nan ?” asked Miss 
Blake at length. 

The girl gave a silent nod of assent. 

“ Well, once upon a time,” began the gov- 
erness in a gentle monotone, “ there lived two 
girls and they were friends. They loved each 
other pearly. One was tall and fair and beau- 
tiful, and the other was small and dark, and if 
people ever thought her even pretty it was be- 
cause love lighted their kind eyes and made it 
seem that what they looked upon was sweet. 


356 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ The first girl had father and mother and a 
happy home. The second was an orphan, 
haying nothing to remind her of the parents 
she had lost when she was a baby but the for- 
tune they had left her. She never knew what 
love meant- until she met her beautiful friend. 
Then she learned. Oh, how those two girls 
loved each other ! When Florence, the beauti- 
ful one, found that Isabel had no home she 
pleaded with her parents to take her into 
theirs, and they not only took her to their 
home but to their hearts as well. And so she 
and her dear friend grew up together like sisters, 
and the little lonely girl was not lonely any 
more, but very, very happy among those she 
loved. Well, time went on, and by and by when 
the two girls had become quite young women, 
the first more beautiful than ever, the other a 
little less plain, maybe, something happened 
that, in the end, caused them to be separated 
forever. 

“ God sent into their lives the self-same experi- 
ence and into their hearts the self-same thought. 
It was a beautiful experience and a beautiful 
thought, but if it was to mean happiness for 
one, it must be at the cost of grief to the other. 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 357 

Perhaps it was because they both knew this that 
neither of them told her secret. But presently 
it was decided which was to have the happiness. 
It came to the one who expected it least — who 
had the least right to expect it. It came to 
Isabel, and for a moment she thought she might 
accept it. But it was only for a moment. 
Then she knew that she must relinquish it. It 
would have been base, would it not, my Nan, 
to have defrauded the friend who had done so 
mudh for her ? And so she, Isabel, left the 
house that had been her home for so many years, 
and quite solitary and alone sailed across the sea 
to the other side of the world, and there she 
stayed for — well, over a dozen years, my dear. 

“ It was soon after she went away that your 
mother — I mean Florence — was married. Isa- 
bel heard of it and was glad. And later, when 
she learned that a dear little daughter had been 
born to Florence, she was happier still. But 
then came sad news. Oh, such sad news ! The 
beautiful young mother died, died and left her 
little baby girl behind her with only the poor 
father to take care of it. 

“ Then, after that, Isabel heard nothing more 
for a long, long time, for Florence’s good parents 


358 


MISS WILDFIRE 


were dead and her husband and Isabel were — 
well, not at enmity, Nan, but not at peace to- 
gether. It was all owing to a misunderstanding, 
but that did not alter it. They were not friends 
and Isabel was too proud to write and ask him 
whether all went well with him and the little 
daughter or whether she might perhaps help to 
care for the child. And so years passed and 
then one day Isabel felt that she could remain 
away from America no longer. All the time there 
had been a great longing in her heart to return, 
but she had tried to smother it and tell herself 
that she had no Fatherland ; that America was 
no more to her than any of the strange countries 
she had lived in ; that her acquaintances abroad 
were as much to her as her friends at home. 
But, as I say, by and by she could resist her 
desire no longer, and so one day she set sail for 
America — I think it must have been after she 
had been absent for quite fourteen years — and 
oh ! how her heart beat when she saw the dear 
land once more. Well, I must make my story 
short, Nan, so I will not tell you how it came 
about that she first heard that Florence’s little 
daughter had grown into a tall girl ; that she 
was living in the old house where Isabel had 


THROUGH DEEP WATERS 


359 


spent so many happy years; that her father 
had gone to some far Eastern country and left 
her in the charge of a faithful servant of her 
mother’s who had loved them all in days gone 
by. But she learned all this and more beside 
and then something told her that it was her 
duty to go to Florence’s child and care for her 
and show her as well as she might how to be a 
noble, true, and lovely woman, as her mother had 
been before her. So she went to the little girl as 
governess and at first the child was opposed to 
her, but by and by she — I really think she grew 
to love her almost as much as the governess 
loved the child. And all this time the father 
never knew who was caring for his girl because 
in the letters that went to him the governess 
was spoken of by but part of her name. She 
chose to live incognito, you know what that is, 
Nan, because she feared if he knew who was 
serving his child as governess he would write 
to her in his proud fashion and say : 

“ ‘ No ; I need no one to care for my daugh- 
ter for love. Whomever I employ I will pay. 
You are a wealthy woman. You need not work 
for money. My few poor dollars are nothing 
to you. Besides — ’ 


3G0 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ And then I think, Nan, he would have re- 
ferred to the old disagreement and it would 
all have been very painful, and she would have 
had to go away and been lonely ever after and 
have left undone her duty to Florence’s child. 
So she lived quietly in the old house with the 
little girl and the servant and all went well for 
a year and then — well, then, dear Nan, I think 
I need not tell what happened then. But, oh, 
my dear, you are my own little girl — Florence’s 
child and I loved her, ah ! I loved her so. For 
her sake you are mine now. Never say that 
you are ‘ all alone ’ again. I have taken you 
as a sacred trust. Come to me, Nan, for I am 
lonely too, I am lonely too ” 


CHAPTEE XXI 


ANOTHER CHRISTMAS 

It was Christmas eye. Nan was sitting be- 
fore the dining-room fire curled up in a huge 
arm chair thinking. Her pale face had grown 
wonderfully sweet during the last few weeks ; 
the curves about her mouth had softened ; her 
eyes had lost their keen sparkle and gained a 
softer light instead. She seemed to have under- 
gone a complete transformation, and any one 
seeing the headstrong hoyden of the year before 
would have found it difficult to recognize her in 
this gentle-mannered girl with her serene brow 
and patient eyes, to whom suffering had taught 
so hard a lesson. Her black dress and her 
parted hair gave her a wonderfully meek look. 
But Nan was not meek. She was merely con- 
trolled. The same hot passions still rose in her 
breast, but she tried to restrain them now. 

This evening she was thinking over all that 
had happened during the past year ; especially 
she was trying to project her thoughts into the 

361 


362 


MISS WILDFIRE 


future, and to imagine what would occur in the 
years to come. She had not yet become accus- 
tomed to the idea of life without her father. It 
seemed to her that he must be alive, and she 
often waked up in the night from such a vivid 
dream of him that it seemed as though he really 
stood beside her, and that she might feel his 
hand if she stretched forth her own in the dark. 
It was difficult to reconcile herself to living 
without the hope of his return ; it was hard to 
convince herself that she must never look for- 
ward to receiving a letter from him again. But 
she knew it must be accomplished, and the 
effort would help to make a noble woman of her. 

As she sat there in the dim room, with only 
the fire to light it, she wondered whether any- 
thing could make of her as noble a woman as 
was her “ Aunt Isabel.” In her heart she felt 
not. Aunt Isabel was simply perfect in the 
girl’s sight, and if she could ever have been 
brought to doubt her perfection, why, there was 
Delia to j3rove it with her emphatic : 

“ No, ma’am ! There ain’t no one in this 
world like her. She is the best, the generousest, 
the most self-sacrificin’ soul on earth — that she 
is, and I’ve known her ever since she was a 


ANOTHER CHRISTMAS 


363 


child. If any one was to ask me the name of 
the woman I’ve most call to honor an’ love, I’d 
say ’twas Isabel Blake Severance an’ never stop 
a minute to think it over.” 

And both Nan and Delia had long ago de- 
cided that while other women might be more 
beautiful, no one could have softer, sunnier hair 
than Aunt Isabel, nor truer, tenderer eyes, nor 
a prettier nose nor a sweeter mouth. And Nan 
was quite confident that if one hunted the whole 
globe over one could not find dimples more en- 
tirely winning nor hands whose touch was so 
absolutely soothing and soft. 

But Miss Severance could never be brought 
to admit these important facts, though Nan 
often sought to convince her of their truth. She 
was too busy a woman to have time to think 
whether she were beautiful or not. 

“ Good is the thing,” she would say, in her 
brisk fashion. “ If I can look in the glass and 
see the reflection of a good woman there, I have 
no right to regret that she is not a beautiful one.” 

Just now she was upstairs, busied with some 
matter of mysterious importance from which 
Nan was excluded. She and Delia had been 
shut into her room all the afternoon. Nan had 


304 


MISS WILDFIRE 


ample time and opportunity for the manufacture 
of her own Christmas gifts, Aunt Isabel being 
so much occupied, behind closed door, with hers. 

For quite a time now Nan had been forced to 
station herself in the regions below stairs, 
where she would hear the bell if it rang, so that 
Delia might be free to give all her attention to 
Miss Severance. Evidently great things w T ere 
in operation above. Nan wondered what it could 
all be about. 

Christmas had lost much of its joyousness 
this year, but still there was a little flavor of 
merriment left. Aunt Isabel had no sympathy 
with the hark-from-the-tombs-a-doleful-sound 
attitude. She thought it was one’s duty to be 
as cheery and hopeful as possible, and not to add 
to the misery of the world at large by forcing 
it to witness one’s private grief. She and Nan 
had their hours of tender mourning and sincere 
regret, but it was always Miss Severance’s desire 
that no unwholesome brooding should be in- 
dulged in by either of them. 

So the girl tried to restrain the tears that 
would rise at the thought of these saddened holi- 
days, and endeavored to bring her mind to bear 
on more happy subjects. She thought of her 


ANOTHER CHRISTMAS 


365 


plans for the next day ; she made a mental re- 
count of the gifts she had prepared, and then, 
somehow against her will, her memory took her 
back to that morning when she had heard of 
her father’s death and listened to Miss Sever- 
ance’s story, and she lived over again those in- 
tense moments when it almost seemed to her 
her mother had been restored to her in this rare 
friend. The simple history had a peculiar fas- 
cination for the girl, and she liked to think that 
it was here, in these very rooms, that it all had 
been enacted. 

She liked to look into those books of Miss 
Severance’s that had her mother’s name upon 
the fly-leaf, and she liked to think that they 
were given to “ Bell with Florence’s fond love.” 

Miss Severance had several photographs of 
her mother as a girl that Nan had never seen, 
and she was fond of looking them over and ex- 
claiming at the “ old-fashioned ” frocks and 
quaintly arranged hair, and wondering whether 
this happy-looking girl ever discovered the sac- 
rifice her friend had made for her. 

One day Nan asked Miss Severance as much, 
but Aunt Isabel had shaken her head gravely 
and said : 


366 


MISS WILDFIRE 


“ No, Nan, she never did. And don’t think 
of that part of the story, my dear. It was no 
more than I ought to have done. You must not 
make a piece of heroism of it. I only told it to 
you because unless I had, it would have been 
difficult to explain why I left her and went so 
far away.” 

“Aunt Isabel,” Nan said, “won’t you tell me 
just what it was you gave up ?” But Miss Sev- 
erance shook her head. 

What the girl could not at all comprehend 
was the fact of any one’s being “ not at peace ” 
with Aunt Isabel. Aunt Isabel, who never was 
unjust nor unkind, nor anything but generous 
and good to every one. She thought if she 
could have spoken to her father she could have 
convinced him that he was mistaken about Aunt 
Isabel. But that was impossible now. Her 
father — again the hot tears came surging up, 
and her breast began to heave. 

Suddenly she started. What was that? She 
jumped to her feet. Somebody was turning the 
knob of the street door and fitting a key in the 
lock. At first it was her impulse to cry out, but 
she mastered herself and ran quickly through 
the £>arlor and stood bravely on the threshold 


ANOTHER CHRISTMAS 


367 


waiting for the door to open and admit the in- 
truder. Her heart beat like a trip-hammer in 
her side, and the pulses in her wrists and temples 
throbbed painfully. She saw the door move in- 
ward, she felt the rush of cold outer air upon 
her face, and then — 

In a moment she was locked in two strong 
arms* her head was pressed against a dear, broad 
chest, and she was crying “ Father ! Father !” 
in a perfect ecstasy of rapture and a tempest of 
tears. 

For a few moments neither of them said a 
single word. They just clung to each other 
and wept — the strong man as well as the slender 
girl. 

They seemed to lose all other thought in the 
joy of the meeting. Then somehow they found 
themselves in the library, and Nan, still sob- 
bing for very happiness, was listening to her 
father as he told her how, for many months, he 
had been ill, but had tried to fight it off and over- 
come it, because he was so anxious to get home, 
and he could not bear to think he might be 
prevented. Then, just before his ship sailed, and 
after he had enrolled himself among the list of 
passengers, and bidden good-bye to those he 


368 


MISS WILDFIRE 


knew, he was stricken down and for weeks lay 
unconscious, between life and death, as utterly 
unbefriended as though he had been in the 
midst of a wilderness. How he came to recover 
he never knew, but it seemed as though his 
great longing for home gave him strength to 
battle through the dreadful fever. Then, almost 
too feeble to stand, he was taken to the ship and 
borne to England, his body weak from suffer- 
ing, but his heart strong with hope. 

The voyage was a severe one, and before he 
reached London he had a relapse, so that when 
they entered port he had to be carried ashore, 
and, too ill to know or care what happened to 
him, was taken to a lodging-house and nursed 
back to health once more by the keeper herself, 
whose son was the steward of the ship on which 
he had crossed. 

“ You can fancy, Nannie, that I had only 
one thought all that time — to get back to you. 
The first move I was able to make was to the 
ship, and I sailed without having seen or spoken 
to a soul I knew in London. Then on board I 
met a friend, who told me of the report of my 
death, and I knew that you must have heard it. 
The people at the bank would communicate 


ANOTHER CHRISTMAS 


369 


with Turner, I felt sure. Ah, what days those 
were ! It seetned as though we should never 
reach land. But we got in to-day, and you can 
imagine that I have not lost one moment in 
coming to you, sweetheart. But how my girl 
has changed. Grown so tall and womanly. 
I’m afraid I’ve lost my little Wildfire. But the 
girl I’ve found in her stead is a hundred times 
dearer.” 

Then Nan clung to him again and they were 
very happy, feeling how good God was, and how 
very blessed it felt to be together. 

For a while they both stopped talking and sat 
quite still, holding hands, while each heart 
offered up a prayer of gratitude. 

They did not hear an upper door open, nor 
did they notice a light footstep in the hall 
above. But at the sound of a gentle voice call- 
ing “ Nan !” they both started up, and the girl’s 
grasp of her father’s hand tightened, for she 
felt him suddenly start and tremble. She tried 
to answer but could not for the joy she felt and 
the quick fear of this other loss she would have 
to suffer now. 

“ Nan !” 

Still the girl could not reply, though she 

24 


370 


MISS WILDFIRE 


tried, and her father’s face had grown rigid and 
white, as though ft were carved in marble. 

Then down the stairs and through the hall 
came Aunt Isabel, stopping at the threshold of 
the dining-room door for a moment to accustom 
her eyes to the dimness within. 

There she stood — the bright light from the 
hall lamp falling full upon her head and the 
ruddy glow of the fire illuminating her face. 

Nan caught up her father’s hand, for she felt 
him suddenly shrink and falter. 

The little figure in the doorway neither 
stirred or moved. 

For an instant there was perfect silence in 
the room, and then Nan saw her father stride 
forward with a look of the most wonderful hap- 
piness upon his face, and heard him utter one 
word in a tone that set her heart to beating. 

“ Bell !” 

And somehow then she knew it all. In one 
brief flash she read the whole story, and she 
saw that it was to he completed at last, and that 
the loss she had feared she would not know at 
all, but something infinitely happier and more 
sweet. 


THE END 


Comrades True 

OR 

PERSEVERANCE VS. GENIUS 

By Edward S. Ellis, A. M. 

Author of “ Among the Esquimaux/ ' 1 
“The Campers Out/’ etc. 

320 Pages Illustrated 

Cloth, #1.25 

In following the career of two friends from youth to 
manhood, this popular author weaves a narrative of 
intense and at times thrilling interest. One of the boys 
is endowed with brilliant talents, is quick and impulsive, 
but after a few efforts is easily discouraged. The other 
possessing only ordinary ability, is resolute and persever- 
ing, overcoming all obstacles in his path until success is 
attained. 

This story possesses the usual exciting and intere&..ng 
experiences that occur in the lives of all bright and active 
youths. In point of incident it is rather more than 
ordinarily realistic, as the two heroes in their experiences 
pass through the recent calamitous forest fires in northern 
Minnesota, and barely escape with their lives. 

The perusal of this story will not only prove fascinating, 
but its teaching will encourage young men to depend for 
success in life upon patience and perseverance in right 
paths, rather than upon great natural gifts, real or fancied. 

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Among the Esquimaux 

or, 

Adventures Under the Arctic Circle 

By Edward S. Ellis, A. M. 
Author of “ The Campers Out,” Etc 

317 pages Illustrated 

Cloth, $1.25 

The incidents of this interesting 
story are laid in Greenland amid the 
snows, the glaciers, and the barren 
regions which have engaged the at- 
tention of explorers and navigators 

for centuries past. 

The main interest of the story centres about two 
bright boys whose desire for discovery sometimes leads 
them into dangerous positions. They visit an iceberg, 
and, while making a tour about it, their boat slips away 
from her moorings. After a number of adventures, they 
are finally rescued by a native Esquimau. With him 
and an old sailor who accompanied them them to the ice- 
berg, they go on a hunting expedition into the interior 
of Greenland, and there they have a number of most 
thrilling and exciting experiences, but none result seri- 
ously, and the whole party is eventually restored to home 
and friends. 

The story is sure to prove interesting to any reader, 
and the moral tone pervading it is such as will meet the 
approval of all parents. 

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The Campers Out 



The Right Path and the Wrong 

By Edward S. Ellis, A. M. 
Author of “ Among the Esqui- 
|maux,” “ Comrades True,” etc. 

363 pages Illustrated 

Cloth, $1.25 

This is one of the most interesting 
works of an author whose productions 
are widely read and deservedly popu- 
lar on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. 
Ellis has in perfection the faculty of 
making his stories not only entertaining in the highest 
degree but instructing and elevating. A leading journal 
truthfully stated that no mother need hesitate to place any 
story of which Mr. Ellis is the author in the hands of her 
boy, for he is sure to be instructed as well as entertained. 

“ The Campers Out ” is bright, breezy, and full of ad- 
venture of just the right sort to hold the attention of any 
young mind. It is clean, pure, and elevating, and the 
stirring incidents with which it is filled convey one of 
the most forceful of morals. It traces the “ right path ” 
and the “ wrong path ” of several boys with such strik- 
ing power that old and young will be alike impressed 
by the faithful portrayal of character, and be interested 
from beginning to end by the succession of exciting in- 
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The Braganza Diamond 

By James Otis 
Author of 

“ Chasing a Yacht,” “ Andy’s 
Ward,” etc. 

383 pages Illustrated 

Cloth, $1.25 

Long before the opening events of 
this story the fragments of this cele- 
brated gem are supposed to have 
been taken from a wreck by an old sea captain, and 
secreted by him on a lonely island in Roanoke Sound. 

This aged captain, now quite feeble, sends for his niece 
and her daughter. They invite two bright boys to 
accompany them, and engaging a steam launch the four, 
in company with the owner — a trusty sailor — set out for 
the lonely island. Arriving there they are distressed at 
finding the captain already dead. To add to their dis- 
comfort they also discover that the former owners of the 
diamond have appeared upon the scene. The little party 
is forcibly made prisoner, and their captors demand that 
they forthwith produce the precious stone. This, of 
course, they are unable to do, but discovering among 
the old captain’s effects a curious cryptogram, they are 
led to hope that its solution may reveal the secret hiding 
place of the diamond, and thus restore to them their 
freedom. This theory eventually proves correct, but not 
until after the party has endured many hardships, and 
passed through many exciting experiences. 

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The Moncasket Mystery 

AND 

How Tom Hardy Solved St 


By Sidney Marlow 
375 pages Illustrated 

Cloth, $1.25 

The tone of this book is earnestly 
and emphatically moral, and the au- 
thor understands that nothiug makes 
morality so attractive to youth as to 
find it coupled with ingenuity, energy, 
and pluck. 

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that he will gallantly retain it long after the covers shall 
have closed upon this chronicle of his efforts and adven- 
tures. He is an admirable boy, yet the author, in defi- 
ance of the usual method in modern juvenile fiction, has 
refused to sacrifice all of the other characters to the sin- 
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have been so attractively presented that the reader feels 
that if the events had chanced to require it each one of 
them would have become a hero. 

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Harry Ambler, and How He 

Saved the Homestead 

By Sidney Marlow 
350 Pages Illustrated 

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This is a narrative of a bright, ac- 
tive, and courageous boy, suddenly 
thrown upon his own resources and 
subjected to the malicious plots of a 
powerful enemy. The effectual and 
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hero turns his enemy’s weapons to his own defence, con- 
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The story abounds in humorous and exciting situations, 
yet it is in no objectionable way sensational. There is 
nothing in it that will tend to create or encourage a taste 
for mere reckless adventure. 

The author has given more attention to the delineation 
of his characters than is usual in juvenile literature, thus 
making the story pleasant reading, even for those who 
have passed the outer line of boyhood. 

He believes in a “ moral,” but not in those bits of ab- 
stract virtue which are so frequently forced into juvenile 
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He would create a personal sympathy with the best ef- 
forts of fallible boys and girls, rather than an admiration 
for the mere name of virtue. 

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The Story of the Iliad 

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 
By Dr. Edward Brooks, A. M. 
370 pages Profusely Illustrated 

Cloth Binding, $1.25 

This is a story of absorbing interest 
both to young and old. It relates in 
a simple prose narrative the leading 
incidents of one of the greatest literary 
works of the world — the Iliad of Homer. Many of its 
names are household words among educated people, and 
its incidents are a constant source of allusion and illus- 
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rant of them. 

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good literature ; second, to give a popular knowledge of 
this famous work of Homer and thus afford a sort of 
stepping-stone to one of the grandest poetical structures 
of all time. 

It is thus a book for the home circle, and should be in 
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Circles, and also to schools as a Supplementary 
Reader. 

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The Story of the Odyssey 

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 
By Dr. Edward Brooks, A. M. 
370 pages Profusely Illustrated 

Cloth Binding, $1.25 
White and Silver Edition, $1.50 
The Odyssey of Homer combines 
the romance of travel with that of 
domestic life, and it differs from the 
Iliad, which is a tale of the camp and 
battle-field. Although the ancient author concentrates 
the attention on a single character — Ulysses — he re- 
fers to several beautiful women, including some of 
the goddesses. After the siege of Troy, Ulysses 
started on a voyage of discovery and adventure in 
unknown lands, which, although described with poetic 
exaggeration, “ has been a rich mine of wealth for 
poets and romancers, painters and sculptors, from 
the date of the age which we call Homer’s down to 
our own.” 

In this wonderful poem lie the germs of thousands of 
volumes which fill our modern libraries. Without some 
knowledge of it, readers will miss the point of many 
things in modern art and literature. 

Ulysses was brave and valiant as a soldier, and was dis- 
tinguished for his wisdom and shrewdness which enabled 
him to extricate himself from the difficulties which to 
others would seem insurmountable. 

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The Young Boatman 

By Horatio Alger, Jr. 

369 Pages Illustrated 

Cloth, $1.25 

This is an interesting story of a boy 
whc is obliged to support himself and 
his mother by rowing passengers 
across the Kennebec River. To add 
to his trials, his intemperate step- 
father, after serving a term of im- 
prisonment, returns home and endeavors to compel 
the boy to pay over his small earnings to him. 
This the boy, who was appropriately nicknamed 
Grit, refuses to do, and after a struggle the stepfather 
retires from the conflict and returns to his thieving 
habits. 

Shortly after Grit discovers a conspiracy to rob the 
bank and promptly communicates his knowledge to the 
president, who succeeds in frustrating the plans of the 
robbers and secures their arrest. 

Grit’s cheerful manner and kindly good nature, 
coupled with the most sterling honesty, cause him 
to be held in high esteem by all who know him. His 
manly courage and self-reliance are often sorely tested, 
but his indomitable pluck transmutes calamity into suc- 
cess. 

The book is full of incident and adventure of just the 
right sort to hold the attention of any bright boy. 

Sold by all booksellers, or sent, prepaid, upon receipt 
of price. 



The Penn Publishing Company 

1020 Arch Street, Philadelphia 


The Odds Against Him, or 
Carl Crawford’s Experience 

By Horatio Alger, Jr. 

35° pages Illustrated 

Cloth, $1.25 

The hero of this story had to leave 
home on account of the ill-treatment 
he received from his stepmother, who 
had a son of her own about the same 
age. Dr. Crawford, a man of con- 
siderable wealth, but of weak, vacil- 
lating mind, loved his son, but was afraid to show his 
true feelings in the presence of his wife. After leaving 
home and meeting with a number of adverse experi- 
ences, Carl eventually obtained employment in a fac- 
tory. He soon gained the confidence of his employer, 
and after frustrating an attempt of the book-keeper to 
rob the safe, he was appointed as a traveler, and, visit- 
ing Chicago, he discovered that his stepmother had an- 
other husband living. Her success in getting a will 
made in her own favor, an attempt on the life of her hus- 
band, etc., are all defeated, and Carl came out victorious 
in the end. 

The book is full of bright, cheerful, and amusing inci- 
dents, showing that a boy of good, honest, sterling, in- 
dustrious habits can always secure friends, and succeed 
in earning a good living. 

Sold by all booksellers, or sent, prepaid, upon receipt 
of price. 



LEMr 10 


The Penn Publishing Company 

1020 Arch Street, Philadelphia 










































